Romanian Voices in a Transcultural Dialogue

Please join the Harriman Institute and the East Central European Center for a talk organized by the N. Iorga Chair for Romanian Language and Culture Dr. Mona Momescu with Dr. Catalina Florina Florescu, editor of the volume Transnational Narratives in Englishes of Exile (Lexington Books, 2017), and Dr. Maria-Sabina Draga Alexandru, a contributor to the volume and Vice President of the Romanian Studies Association of America.

On Transnational Narratives in Englishes of Exile:

Monolingual, monolithic English is an issue of the past. In this collection, by using cinema, poetry, art, and novels we demonstrate that English has become the heteroglossic language of immigration—Englishes of exile. By appropriating its plural form we pay respect to all those who have been improving standard English, thus proving that one may be born in a language as well as give birth to a language or add to it one’s own version. The story of the immigrant, refugee, exile, expatriate is everybody’s story, and without migration, we could not evolve our human race.

In this talk, Florescu and Alexandru will focus on Romanians’ voices rewriting their own lived understanding on immigration in a world filled with intense, disparaging rhetoric towards the foreigner. Alexandru will talk about her chapter in the collection, “Transnational Perspectives on Romanian Gender and Ethnic Diversity in Ioana Baetica Morpurgo’s Imigranţii.” Florescu will discuss her chapter, “Mise en abîme with My Immigrants,” specifically the bilingualism in Andrei Codrescu’s poetry with references to visual artists.