Dorota Głowacka – lecturer at King’s College University, Canada. Author of books:
Po tamtej stronie: świadectwo, afekt, wyobraźnia (Warszawa 2017) and Disappearing Traces: Holocaust Testimonials, Ethics, and Aesthetics (Washington 2012), and also the editor ofImaginary Neighbors: Mediating Polish-Jewish Relations after the Holocaust (Nebraska 2007) and Between Ethics and Aesthetics: Crossing the Boundaries (Albany, NY 2002).
She has also published dozens of articles in the fields of continental philosophy, Holocaust and genocide studies and Polish-Jewish relations after the Holocaust.
Linguicide seminar, 8 February 2023, More information >>>
On Wednesday (08.02), from 11:00 to 14:30, we invite those studying cultural studies and other humanities subjects to attend the seminar Linguicide: the Holocaust and the revitalisation and revival of indigenous languages led by prof. Dorota Głowacka from the University of King’s College, Halifax (Canada).
The seminar will be held in room 9 at the Institute of Cultural Studies ( ul. Szewska 50/51). If you are interested in taking part in the seminar, please sign up by completing the form: https://forms.office.com/e/rYHB5cwLaa.
What is the phenomenon of language extinction (linguicide), as opposed to the natural process of language extinction? The problem of language extinction first appeared in “The Governance of the Axis States” – a book published in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin, who argued that the deliberate elimination of the language of a particular group is one element of genocide. In the seminar, we will reflect on the notion of ‘linguocide’ based on texts by Canadian Indigenous authors such as Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (Anishinaabe), Lorena Fontaine (Cree Anishinaabe) and Andrea Bear Nicholas (Maliseet). They corroborate Lemkin’s thesis in the context of the annihilation of First Nations, Inuit and Métis languages as a result of aggressive cultural practices on the part of the settler state, of which the ‘Indian schools’ were a clear expression. In 2015, as a result of the deliberations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, there was a demand to restore the right of members of Indigenous groups to speak their own language, and in 2019, the Indigenous Languages Act was approved by the Canadian Parliament. To what extent does the introduction of the Act actually open up opportunities for the revival and revitalisation of Indigenous languages? What are the links between demands for the restoration of language rights and claims of a political nature? Is the revitalisation of indigenous languages a kind of response to the epistemic violence of the Western paradigm of knowledge? Let us consider the latter question in a broader North American context, based on a chapter on language from the well-known book Song of the Land by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Potawatomi).
Books:
Andrea Bear Nicholas, Linguicide: Submersion education and the killing of languages in Canada, „Briarpatch Magazine”, March 1, 2011, https://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/linguicide
Lorena Sekwan Fontaine, Redress for linguicide: residential schools and assimilation in Canada, „British Journal of Canadian Studies”, 2017, vol. 30, nr 2, s. 183-204.
Leanne Simpson, Confronting Linguistic Genocide, w: Lighting the Eighth Fire: The Liberation, Resurgence, and Protection of Indigenous Nations, red. L. Simpson, Winnipeg 2008.
Rita Joe, I Lost my Talk (wiersz z tomu The Poems of Rita Joe, 1978)
Bill C-91 Indigenous Languages Act (Preamble, s. 1-2; Purposes of Act, s. 4-5; Office of Commissioner of Indigenous Languages), s. 7-10. Robyn Wall Kimmerer, Pieśń Ziemi. Rdzenna mądrość, wiedza naukowa i lekcje płynące z natury, przeł. M. Bukowska, Kraków 2020 (rozdz. Gramatyka żywotności, s. 65-77).
