#16 webinar of the “9 Months, 9 Universities” series: When “two tongues touch”: Literature and language across cultures 

When “two tongues touch”: Literature and language across cultures 

8 April 2025 at 11:00 CEST on Youtube

Marked by globalization, migration and digital communication, the 21st century is without question an era of intensified exchange between cultures and social groups. Yet, recent political and corporate developments aim at limiting the general public’s access to the diversity and plurality that this era has to offer. In times of an increased valorization of nationalism, literature represents an invaluable counterpoint in that it effectively showcases the benefits of geographical and intellectual border crossings, via both its content and its rhetoric. 

Translingual writers (Kellman, 2000) who compose literary works (also) in their second language(s) provide us with an especially immediate point of access to the idea of transculturalism. With a heightened sense for the liminal zones between geographies, languages, and cultures, the works of such translingual authors cater to our understanding of transcultural experiences and nuances. 

This talk will provide an introduction to an underexamined artform under said scope, translingual poetry, in English as the poet’s second language. On the example of this specimen of cross-language writing, linguistic de- and transformations and innovations will be shown as rich points of connection and disconnection. A further focus on the cultural dimension will demonstrate how transcultural knowledge and intercultural understanding are effectively (re-)constructed through second-language poetics. After the 45-minute talk there will be a 15-minute Q&A.

The speakers

Lisa Schantl, MA BA BA, is a PhD candidate in the field of English literary and cultural studies at the University of Graz and Vilnius University within the frame of the Arqus Alliance, where she concentrates on literary multilingualism in the anglosphere with a special focus on translingual poetry. Further, she is the founder and editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Tint Journal, co-head of BLÄTTERN, a literary space for emerging writers in Graz, and a freelance translator between English and German.
She studied English and American Studies as well as Philosophy at the University of Graz and Montclair State University, New Jersey. In 2023, she co-edited the anthology Tinted Trails. Exploring Writings in English as a Second Language (Forum Stadtpark). She has received various scholarships and grants in academia and culture. 

Prof. Dr Christine Schwanecke is both Professor of English Literature and Culture and Head of the Centre for Cultural Studies, Graz. Before, she worked at the University of Heidelberg and at the “International PhD Programme for Literary and Cultural Studies” at the Giessen Graduate Centre for Cultural Studies. She also held professorships at Mannheim University (2016-2021) and Giessen University (interim professor 2019/2020).
She has worked in a multitude of international contexts, e.g., as academic visitor at the University of Oxford (United Kingdom, 2015) or as a partner in the “European PhD Programme Literary and Cultural Studies” (PhDnet, since 2023), promoting the internationalisation and interisciplinarisation of outstanding young researchers.

She is fond of interdisciplinary and trans-sectoral research and teaching. In 2013, her dissertation on the intersection of literature and photography was awarded the “Ruprecht-Karls-Preis” of the Stiftung Universität Heidelberg; in 2015, she co-hosted a trans-sectoral symposium together with the prestigious Ruhrtriennale – Festival of the Arts; in 2024, she co-operated with the festival steirischer herbst to enhance her teaching.

Since 2008, Christine Schwanecke has published two monographs (one on drama, one on intermedial storytelling), (co-)edited five interdisciplinary essay collections, and more than forty articles in essay collections, handbooks, and peer-reviewed journals. They deal with a plethora of genres (digital media, novels, plays, films) and focus, in particular, on the intersection between literature and culture, esp. the early modern culture and the post-digital era.

9 Months, 9 Universities is a series of guest lectures that focus on specific topics related to language and culture and target mainly graduate and postgraduate students as well as Early-Stage Researchers and lecturers interested in these topics. The lectures are intended to generate awareness and appreciation for the topic of multilingualism as well as an understanding of the many areas of our lives that are influenced by language.