INSTITUTE OF MODERN LANGUAGES RESEARCH

School of Advanced Study • University of London

 

 

 

Our recent blog post discusses the symposium ‘Future Directions in Modern Languages’, held on 25 February 2022, and issues that arose from the event. The question at the heart of the workshop was how the disciplinary area, broadly defined as Modern Languages, can develop to ensure its relevance and purpose.

 

Three issues were present in all discussions: how we can successfully move beyond a distinction between ‘modern’ and ‘community’ languages; the necessity of intense, joined-up, and inclusive thinking concerning the teaching of languages and cultures; and the need to demonstrate the relevance and applicability of the analytical frameworks that are used within the disciplinary field.

 

You can read the blog post here https://modernlanguagesresearch.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2022/04/26/future-direction-in-modern-languages-action-points/, where the event’s recording can also be viewed.

 

 

We would also like to draw your attention to the recording of the event ‘Writing Freely’, organised by the IMLR on 16 March as part of the SAS series ‘Open for Discussion’. The event addressed the question of authorship in response to political oppression. Discussants included the Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez, Dan Gorman (Director, English PEN), Malu Halasa, editor of volumes of literary writing from the Middle East, and Anna-Louise Milne, founder of a collaborative writing initiative with refugees in Paris.

 

Issues of time and space were discussed, the nature and purpose of writing under – or as a fugitive from – a repressive regime, and the question of genre in political writing. What stood out very clearly was the discussants’ embrace of the transformative and creative power of literary writing. In the words of Sergio Ramírez: ‘Power conceived in an absolute way, which seeks to exercise a closed control over society, sees fiction writing as a challenge, because writing is by its very nature an act of freedom that gives way to all creative potencies.’

 

You can view the recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vosraDCvcA

 

 

 

Charles Burdett

Director, Institute of Modern Languages Research

Professor of Italian

 

School of Advanced Study | University of London
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Tel: +44 (0)20 7862 8739

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