Living-in-Between-Languages@Borderlands.Global

Graciela Susana Boruszko, PhD, Associate Professor
Comparative Literatures and Cultures, Humanities Division
Fresno Pacific University, Canada
e-mail: gsboruszko@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

The voices of the “literary periphery” escape the suppression of invisibility by translating themselves into more “universal languages”. The literary system acting as one of the repositories of cultural memory is in this way forced to reshape, conform or reinvent itself into new literary expressions.
I will study the Basque case as it has been placed at the peripheries of Spanish cultural life but in the last decades jumped into the international literary system by translating what had only belonged to the intimate Basque collectivity. Is this exposure an attempt to validate themselves after decades of linguistic isolation? How do political views interact with this linguistic phenomenon? What is the relation between the national identity and the expression of such in a translated format? Does the “I” that writes represent the Basque author or a mirrored image of him or her? How do we cross linguistic barriers without losing identities? This is not a new scenario in the global literary system but we are finding new ways to overcome it. This literary projection of the Basque culture is supported by other cultural initiatives that accompany the literary event. Although the linguistic isolation was partly due to the linguistic challenges of the Basque language itself, it is interesting to see how the Spanish and the global literary community receives these new translations that are contextualized in a political and militant decision not to pursue global recognition through violent venues.

Keywords: bilingualism, borderlands, Basque, glocal, linguistic minority

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How to cite:
Boruszko, G. S. (2018). “Living-in-Between-Languages@Borderlands.Global.” Journal of Comparative Studies 11 (40), 30–40.