Berthoud Symposium: Multilingualism, Beyond Lingualism, and the Sensory
Event
Event date
Wednesday 10 December 2025, 4pm to 5.30pm
Location
D/L/036 , Derwent College, Campus West, University of York (Map)
Admission
Free admission, booking not required
Event details
Join us for a panel of papers (and one short film), followed by two short poetry readings, exploring the theme of multilingualism and what lies beyond the linguistic.
This event is in honour of our vising Berthoud Lecturer, Prof. Wen-chin Ouyang, and is followed by the Berthoud Lecture at 6pm in SLB/118.
There will be a short break between the symposium/readings and the lecture.
PANEL
Chair: Dr Nicoletta Asciuto
Sam Coe, "'Words just physically': The Fireworks of Multilingualism in Clarice Lispector"
In her 1970 crônica 'Palavras apenas fisicamente' [‘Words just physically’], the Brazilian author Clarice Lispector poetically muses on the sound and appearance of the word 'miracle' as written and spoken in Italian, Portuguese, English and French. From these purely physical or, we could say, formal properties, she suggests the possibility of differing significances as we move from language to language, a position at odds with their seemingly synonymous meaning when it comes to translating between them. Thinking through her metaphor of a physical word only gaining meaning through its destruction 'like a firework' and her describing her own writing as 'kaleidoscopic', my presentation will speculate on Lispector's use of her multilingualism within her texts, in particular those moments where she seems to appeal less to the semantic and more to the sensory qualities of a word.
Alice Flinta, "Foreignized Italian: Storia di mia vita by Janek Gorczyca"
What happens when a novel is written in a foreignized language – that is, when this is moulded by the echoes of grammar rules belonging to a second tongue, which is, nonetheless, never made apparent? Is this multilingualism, translingualism, metrolingualism, or something else? I attempt to address these questions by analysing Janek Gorczyca’s autobiography, Storia di mia vita (2024), written in Italian but reverberating with Polish. I start by briefly exploring how Polish inserts itself in the Italian, to then focus on the role and effects of Gorczyca’s use of the present tense throughout the narrative. I suggest the apparent grammatical simplicity adds a layer of emotional complexity, as the immediacy of the narrative underscores the author’s deeply embodied experience of the events recounted.
Gertrude Gibbons and Jo Melvin, "Where is my Voice?" [short film]
This short film, a collaboration between mother and daughter, reflects on the experience of aphasia. We explore the language disorder from the perspective of 'both sides'; the one who has the condition and the one who listens. The film shows our methods of communication and the (re)interpretation of verbal/grammatical 'mistakes'. It makes reference to various works of art, literature and music which directly or indirectly speak to the experience of aphasia. Through the film we consider how it might be used as part of a creative research and performance practice. We propose that art, in all its forms, offers alternative modes of communication and expression, giving voice in unconventional ways, and how approaching the arts as a vehicle in this way can facilitate new approaches to accessibility and what accessibility means.
POETRY READING
In conjunction with the CModS Research Strand "Creative-Critical Feminist Forms".
Featuring Jennifer Lee Tsai and Natalie Linh Bolderston.