Activities and projects

ECR

Theses in progress

Saskia VandenbusscheL'interculturalité de la littérature néerlandophone contemporaine à l'épreuve de ses récits 'hétérolingues. Etude d'une production littéraire et de ses enjeux pour un univers social partagé.

This project analyzes how a body of contemporary Dutch 'heterolingual' literature, marked by its assimilation of foreign idioms, contributes to the abolition of linguistic and cultural borders and rethinks its relationship with other communities. Starting with a corpus of prototypical prose texts, independent of ethnic or geographical origin, the first objective will be to establish an integrated model for textual analysis: one which examines the discursive strategies, narratological devices, aesthetic particularities, as well as ethical issues of this body of literature. The study will contribute to a better understanding of the creative language experience, which, in Dutch-speaking cultural representations, has accompanied the societal hybridization of the late 20th and early 21st century.

Besa HashaniHis Fiction in the World, the World in his Fiction. A Study of the Circulation, Reception and Acquisition of World Literary Value of Ismail Kadare’s Works in the Anglophone Literary Landscape

The aim of this research project is to shed light on the circulation and reception of Ismail Kadare's works in English translation in the English-speaking literary field and, by extension, the field of world literature. The case study unpacksthe particular relationships that peripheral literatures entertain with major literary fields and how the translation and reception of the former in the latter demonstrate the dynamics of legitimation and value ascription in world literature. The first objective of this project is to analyse the internal 'transtextual' configuration of Kadare’s works,as they are received via translation in the anglophone context. The second objective is to analyse the modalities of reception of these works in this literary field. What sense is made of the ‘transtextual’ content of Kadare’s oeuvre by the English-speaking readership? The third objective is to combine the previous insights in order to contribute to the ongoing discussion about literary value, the circulation of world literature, and its reception within the anglophone literary landscape.

Theses

Julie Crombois, Das ‘andere’ Belgien/ Das 'andere' Deutschland. Zirkulation, Kulturtransfer und Vereinnahmungen im deutsch-belgischen literarischen und intellektuellen Kontext (1933-1945). (2020)

Elies Smeyers, Voor de doorbraak. De voorgeschiedenis van een ‘succesverhaal’. Een onderzoek naar de genese en receptie van de vroege vertalingen van Hugo Claus’ werk in het Frans (UCLouvain & UGent, 2019)

Organisation

Paradoxes and Misunderstandings in Cultural Transfer, UCLouvain/Louvain-la-Neuve, du 22 au 24 mai 2019. Publication prévue comme dossier de la revue en ligne Interférences littéraires/Literaire Interferenties. A Multilingual E-Journal for Literary Studies (www.interferenceslitteraires.be) pour le premier semestre 2021.