15:00 – 18:00

First theatre network of world’s languages in danger

(Conference Part II – rehearsal stage)

1. Madelena Gonzalez – The Case of Minority Theatre in the Era of Globalization? – ICTT, Avignon University, France

Contemporary theatre is a rich source for increasing the visibility of communities generally perceived by others as minorities, or those who see themselves as such. Whether of a linguistic, ethnic, political, social, cultural or sexual nature, the claims of minorities enjoy a privileged medium in theatre. 
With reference to some examples from France and Canada, this presentation will address the central question of the place and status of apparently marginal forms of theatre in the era of globalization. Not only do these works illustrate how minority theatre can throw into question the dominant paradigms that govern society, but they also suggest their own more flexible frameworks for theatrical activity. Theatre, particularly when it stems from the so-called margins or from a minority group, can provide a challenge to the paradigms of western hegemonic culture, simply by staging alterity and particularity. In the context of the cultural homogenization attendant on globalization, it can create a space for freedom, difference, and cultural specificity, while also possessing a universal dimension or resonance since it speaks through and about the collective to the wider community, whether that community be regional, national or international. Even if minority theatre often stems from a specific cultural, linguistic or political situation, and the need to affirm or reclaim that specificity, in many cases it can speak to the majority about the minority and thus open up important new cultural dialogues between the margins and the mainstream.

2. Carsten Sinner – Linguistic Imperialism – University of Leipzig, Germany

The contribution deals with the question of how language (via an image drawn of it directly– “only peasants speak like this”–or indirectly–the dominant language is used and taught in schools, the minoritised language is not–is used to exclude speakers, and how in turn this exclusion then is or can be an important factor in the decline of minoritised languages. Besides aspects such as self-hatred and linguistic paranoia that characterise diglossic contexts, the positions of critics of the change in the role of dominant languages to be brought about by normalisation are also thematized, since they also contribute to obstructing the change of status of languages. This is the case, for example, of the claim that subsidies for translation into (or from) minoritised languages are an “undemocratic irregularity” or that subsidising cultural projects in a minoritized language are a “unjustifiable waste of money only explicable with wokeism”.

3. Jan Budar – Sorbian Digitality – Director of Foundation for the Sorbian People, Germany

Jan Budar, director of the Foundation for the Sorbian People (has the complete overview of digitization programs/projects created so far, because the foundation has funded much of it – dictionaries, translator machines, read aloud function – to future or current projects, such as the Fraunhofer Institute and speech recognition). He will, of course, try to get the hang of what could help the theater, to what extent can live language translation take place via digital platforms.

4. Sietske Poepjes – Political speaker, Friesland, The Netherlands

5. Daniel Alfreider – Political Speaker, Ladin, Itlay