Sinophone meets Francophonie. Concepts & Controversies
Stadt: Berlin
Beginn: 2018-04-12
Ende: 2018-04-14
SUMMARY AND KEY OBJECTIVES
In the past decades, debates on regional identities, linguistic diversity and cultural production in many parts of Africa, Asia and the Americas and have centred on the terms “Sinophone” and “Francophonie”. Both terms are situated in highly controversial fields of inquiry: regional identity formation vis-à-vis dominant political and cultural centre (China/Beijing and France/Paris), cultural production in the context of linguistic hegemony (dominance of French and Mandarin Chinese and, as a result, the marginalization of regional languages), and the negotiation of alternatives that transgress the aforementioned A vs. B dichotomies. Despite these similarities, there are also obvious differences underlying the concepts of Sinophone and Francophonie. With a history of more than 130 years and strong institutional backing from France, Francophonie is a firmly established and universally recognized term. By contrast, the term Sinophone denotes a novel and emerging concept that is currently mostly debated among ethnic Chinese writers and academics outside China, notably in the United States and Taiwan. In the light of these similarities and differences, a comparative approach to these controversial concepts seems self-evident. Surprisingly, however, such an attempt has never been made before. It is therefore the key objective of this conference to bring together leading international scholars of Sinophone Studies and Francophonie and to explore and compare
the conceptual boundaries underlying both terms.
THURSDAY, APRIL 12TH
9:30 OPENING
WELCOME ADDRESSES Marcelo Caruso (vice dean), Ursula Hans (head of international office), Susanne Gehrmann & Henning Klöter (convenors)
10.00 KEYNOTES
Françoise Lionnet (Harvard University and UCLA):
Francophonies and their Discontents
Shu-mei Shih (University of California in Los Angeles):
Sinophone as History and Sinophone as Theory
13:30 CULTURAL POLITICS
Ien Ang (University of Western Sydney):
The Cultural Politics of Chineseness after the Rise of China
Ibrahima Diagne (Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar):
From Senghorian Francophonie to a Transcultural Future. The Ongoing Relationship between China and Senegal in the Context of Increasing Globalization
15:30 BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
Henning Klöter (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin):
Sinophone Literature from a Sociolinguistic Perspective
Kangni Alemdjrodo (Université de Lomé):
French and Chinese Languages in Postcolonial Togo
FRIDAY, APRIL 13TH
9:30-11:00
CONTROVERSIES
Olga Lomová (Charles University in Prague):
What is the Sinophone Good for? Reflections of a Literary Historian
Susanne Gehrmann (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin):
Francophonie and Francophone Literatures in and out of Africa
11:30-13:00
CARIBBEAN ENTANGLEMENTS
Kathleen Gyssels (Universiteid Antwerpen):
A Diaspora in a Diaspora: the Chinese Migration to the Caribbean Archipelago, from In/visible to Un/Creole?
Literary and Theoretical Considerations in Contemporary Circum-Caribbean Narratives
Brian Bernards (University of Southern California, Dornsife):
Francophone Caribbean Theory in Sinophone Literary Studie
14:00 – 15:30
SOUTHEAST ASIAN ENTANGLEMENTS
Mamadou Fall (Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar):
Indochina and the Dilemma between Confucianism and the French model
Wai-chew Sim (Nanyang Techn. University, Singapore):
Sinophone + : Language Ecological Considerations in Selected Southeast Asian Texts
16:00 – 17:00
ROUNDTABLE: CONCEPTS OF WORLD LITERATURE IN CHINESE AND FRENCH
Kathleen Gyssels, Françoise Lionnet, Shu-mei Shih
SATURDAY, APRIL 14TH
9:30-11:45 CHOICES AND NOSTALGIAS
Julia Pröll (Universität Innsbruck):
Adopting French: Migrant Sinophone Authors in France and
Canada – A Comparative Approach
Alison Groppe (University of Oregon):
The (Wandering) Songstress and the Sinophone: Nostalgia for 50s-60s Hong Kong Popular Music & Movie Musicals in Films by Tsai Mingliang and Royston Tan
Bernadette Desorbay (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin):
The Francophonie of the 21st Century will be ‚Archipelagic‘ or it Will not Be. Asia Paving the Way?
12:15- 13:15 CONCLUDING ROUNDTABLE: THE CONTESTED FIELDS OF THE SINOPHONE AND FRANCOPHONIE
Kangni Alemdjrodo, Henning Klöter, Olga Lomová
12:15- 13:15
CONFERENCE VENUE
HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN
INSTITUTE OF ASIAN AND AFRICAN STUDIES
INVALIDENSTR. 118, 10115 BERLIN
3RD FLOOR, ROOM 315
PUBLIC TRANSPORT
U6 NATURKUNDEMUSEUM
S1/S2/S25/S26 NORDBAHNHOF
Beitrag von: SUSANNE GEHRMANN
Redaktion: Marcel Schmitt