Components of Belonging in Two Finno-Ugric Minority Literatures

The topics of the present research are, in a larger sense, two multilingual and multicultural regions: the Tornio Valley in Northern Scandinavia and Transylvania in Eastern Europe. In a narrower sense, I am analysing two novels written in minority languages, a Transylvanian Hungarian novel written by Károly Molter, entitled Tibold Márton and a novel written in Meänkieli by Bengt Pohjanen, Jopparikuninkhaan poika (The Smuggler King’s Son). I attempt to answer two main research questions: 1. How is the belonging of the two main characters to a different language and ethnic group presented in the analysed Hungarian and Meänkieli novels? 2. How can the borders between “us” and “them” be constructed through inclusion and exclusion and how can they be crossed at the individual level? I will thus concentrate on some aspects of the narratives of inclusion and exclusion, as represented in the above-mentioned novels.

Évolution du phénomène de traduction dans le domaine littéraire de langue bretonne

Arguing that the concept of littérature-monde conceals unequal relations between literary cultures, this article examines the socio-economic contexts of literary translation from and into Breton from the fifteenth to the twenty-first century. The value of translation across the corpus of 1025 texts lies primarily in creating intercultural relationships and promoting cultural diversity. Translation into Breton represents a vital defence of a language with dwindling speaker numbers: in the late 1970s it increases dramatically, with littérature de jeunesse spearheading a change in state policy allowing regional languages to be taught in schools. Yet translation can also reinforce an existing power imbalance, highlighting the central role played by French in the linguistic and literary construction of Breton society. Poetry, songs and contes translated from Breton often perpetuate stereotypes of a bardic, oral culture, while nationalist writers reject self-translation into French as capitulation before the dominant culture. Since the 1980s, many have chosen to bypass French by translating into languages such as Welsh, Scottish, Irish or Catalan, creating a network of minority literatures. Since the market for Breton translation is so small, however, such texts serve as valuable identity markers, a symbolic, affective force articulating a quest for socio-political legitimacy via literature.

Practices of Colonization in Regional Literary Histories

The discourses on 20th century Eastern European regional literatures are predominantly determined by the use of terminology and interrelationships of national and ethnic literatures, which originated in social and state organizational embeddedness. Besides, the majority–minority relation is significantly present in the discourse on these literatures, with this relation representing a – sometimes implicit, sometimes explicit – approach of colonization. If ethnic (or minority) literatures are not only examined as opposed to national (or majority) literatures, it might occur that ethnic literatures themselves often resorted to practices of colonization when describing the literary context. This paper aims at examining the processes of literary history writing of German and Hungarian literatures from Romania, and by looking at them from a transnational perspective, identifying the in-between space where the mutually oppressive spatial practices are eliminated.

From Maoism to littérature-monde: Michel Le Bris and the Breton origins of world literature in French

Since the publication of the 2007 manifesto ‘Pour une littérature-monde en français’, scholars have questioned whether or not the initially inflammatory concept of littérature-monde has produced a meaningful legacy. This article re-examines the controversies which the manifesto provoked by focusing on the intellectual career of one of its principal authors: Michel Le Bris. Scholarly criticism has largely overlooked the fact that Le Bris’s involvement in the littérature-monde project is an extension of his previous involvement with Maoism and his identity as a Breton author. The manifesto can be read as Le Bris’s response to the political and cultural crises of his time which he previously addressed through activism and cultural entrepreneurship. Though Le Bris’s own defence of the manifesto is flawed and problematic, a better understanding of the context from which it originated raises important questions when considering the role of regional and minority literatures in the global age.

Dissenting narratives of identity in Saami, Meänkieli and Kven literatures

In this study, I analyse the interconnections between language and identity in the literatures written in minority languages in Fennoscandia (Meänkieli, Saami and Kven). I concentrate on authors who write in their native languages (as well), and who can move between minority and majority language both as ordinary people and as writers. These literatures are small bodies, because there is a small number of people who can still read and write these languages. Minority literatures often deal with the relationship between minority and majority (dominant) cultures describing them by means of power relations. In the minority literatures I am going to deal with past, reconstructed on the horizon of the present, vizualised in a narrative frame, represeting an integral part of the minority writers’ great narratives, whose aim is to write their own minority histories, as opposed to the official ones. When examining the works of Fennoscandian minority writers, we can notice many a time that they build their own life-stories into the past recalled for the sake of community. In my study, I analyse some important elements of the writers’ narrative-building. I will be looking for answers for the following questions: What kind of power relations determine the life of the given minorities? How do they relate to different borders in their everyday life? How firm the virtual borders created by minority and majority populations are and what kind of consequences crossing borders has. As the theoretical basis of the lecture is concerned, I analyise the topic from the perspective of microhistorical research and the psychological study of identity and stigma.

Minority Literatures in Israel

The term “minority” usually refers to individuals or groups that are disadvantaged in comparison to those who belong to the dominant group. This type of exclusion is commonly based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, social and cultural background, and sexual orientation. While in reality boundaries between cultural groups are unclear, defining and relating to minorities always hinges on a definition of the majority or hegemony, thus creating an often misleading concept of binarism. The heterogeneous social and cultural fabric of the Israeli context, and its evolution over the years, problematizes any clear dichotomy between hegemonial and marginal groups. Nevertheless, general distinctions can be made based on what is perceived as the common narrative of Israeli culture. From its inception, the Zionist leadership, while integrating people from different places, cultures, and languages, pursued a melting-pot policy by promoting a monocultural community for the “ingathering of the exiles,” supported by national “standards” such as the “National Poet,” the “National Theater,” the “National Museum” and the “National Library,” where Hebrew was the cultural kernel. These cultural pillars adhered to the Ashkenazi Western secular culture, with certain concepts of masculinity and militarism, to the detriment of other national ethnic and religious groups. Changes in the political arena, and the growing waves of immigration from the 1950s to the 1980s, led to fissures in efforts to structure a homogeneous Jewish-Israeli culture. Alternative narratives and cultures began shaping a multicultural sphere with differing national, ethnic, religious and cultural groups. In the last few decades, this evolution has been mirrored in Hebrew literature and in the field of Hebrew literary criticism. Numerous volumes of prose and poetry have been published and studies have dealt with the Israeli minority literature of specific literary groups or significant authors. This entry clearly cannot cover all these minority groups, but rather focuses on the national minority in Israel in the writing of Palestinian-Israelis, the literatures of ethnic minorities such as Mizrahim who immigrated from North Africa and the Middle East, and immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU) and Ethiopia, the literature of religious and ultra-orthodox Israelis, and the literature of the LGBT community in Israel. It does not discuss women’s writing, a broad category that deserves separate attention; the literature of the disabled community, which has still not emerged as a literary group; or authors who write and publish in Israel in different languages such as English, Yiddish, or German. Some of these groups are discussed in Shai Ginsburg’s comprehensive article on Israeli literature in this bibliographic collection.