Applied Modern Languages

Existió en París un instante y un rincón donde se dejaron fotografiar los tres rumanos más universales: Mircea Eliade, Emil Cioran y Eugen Ionesco. La foto -imagen emblemática para las palabras que siguen-parece haber sido vista y sensibilizado a más de una persona. Fernando Savater lo expresaba ya en aquellos tiempos: «Una foto reciente muestra a Cioran, Mircea Eliade y Eugène Ionesco en un bulevar parisino… creadores rumanos que han ejercido, desde París y desde la lengua francesa, la más profunda influencia en lo mejor de la cultura occidental contemporánea» (Savater 1980: III). Los superlativos de Fernando Savater se ven acompañados, hace un año, -en el artículo de Moix, en La Vanguardia, en sus páginas dedicadas a Eliade, artículo que se abre con la nombrada tríada más el escultor Brâncusi-, por la admirable fórmula de «sinfonía rumana»: «Brâncusi, Cioran, Ionesco y Eliade, componen la línea delantera del espléndido equipo de intelectuales y creadores que Rumanía ha dado al mundo en este siglo… todos ellos -cierra su artículo Llàtzer Moix-con sus distintos registros y notas, han participado en la composición de una sorprendente y brillante sinfonía rumana» (Moix, 2000: 4).

The paper sets out to examine a set of established and emergent misconceptions about translation practice constitutive of what I term a 'trans-cultural ethos' of translation from the perspective of critical and culture theory. It is premised on the thesis that whereas in the metadiscourse of literary translation, the grands récits have for the larger part dissolved under the impact of poststructuralist revolution, in the nonliterary medium, stereotypical, totalising forms of conceptualising translation have endured, critical interventions proving slow to factor in the major tenets of modern language consciousness. One of the principal aims of the enquiry is to observe the perpetuation of these myths in the cultures of translation of today. With this end in view, the enquiry focuses on the literary and non-literary, general and applied subject-specialist translation, drawing on some of the landmark texts of language philosophy and translation theory.

For the connoisseur of Ackroyd's oeuvre, a conversation with the man profiles itself in anticipation as one of those occasions enlivened by a rare verve and relish for dialogic interaction. Early on in the exchange, however it becomes apparent that his dialogue is with the books and writing the implied interlocutor, indeed his one and only religion. In the current scene of writing Peter Ackroyd is a singular figure and his contemporaneous quality a force commanding attention in a diversity of ways.

The following is a comparative enquiry into the common linguistic and rhetorical heritage the practices of translation and interpretation share. It seeks to revisit the cognitive and narrative processes constitutive of these practices with a view to reflect on the cognitive response and degree of language performance that they entail. To this end in view, it examines seminal aspects regarding the orality and performativity, inter-and inter-linguistic and narrative structures embedded in

This is a politically incorrect enquiry, at least it is in the common acceptation of the term last I checked. In these parts of the world, censorship, coercive knowledge and thought policing, in however 'affirmative' forms of exertion, still carry a traumatic baggage, one that will not wear out easily; not in the new information world (dis)order, or shall I say,

The article proposes an examination of the interplay of identity poetics and politics in Ishiguro's construction of Englishness articulated from the perspective of the theory of the novel. Building on three central categories foregrounded by Mikhail Bakhtin as endemic to novelistic discourse: dialogism, polyphony and heteroglossia, it posits that the submerged ideology of Ishiguro's discourse of identity is more productively interrogated as a constitutive generic trait than the manifestation of the condition of postcoloniality. As well as its intrinsic ideological substratum, the investigation touches on aspects regarding the international quality of Ishiguro's writing, making the case for a reconsideration of the author's status from the vantage point of the role played by alterity and reader response in his fiction.

The above is an enquiry into globalism construed as a discursive mode and its reverberations and representations in post 9 /11 film productions, more specifically in cinematic productions of the dystopia genre. It is premised on two central theses: that underlying globalisation is the ideology of globalism, i.e. a discourse comprising the doctrines and rhetoric of the globalization phenomenon; that, as a reflection of the ‗post-apocalyptic subject', dystopianism is endemic in indeed constitutive of the very ‗cultural logic' of global capitalism, indicative i.e. of its systemic apprehensions, projections and contradictions. Looking at the congeniality of dystopian forms as global cultural productions turned mainstream I seek to observe the extent to which the centrality of dystopia in the global age is fueled by the rhetoric of globalism and the latter's bearing on the insatiable appetite for catastrophe defining the twenty first century sensibility. As well as considering what I deem to be a range of deep-seated dominants symptomatic of the global order, e.g. the war-on-terror, precarity and the demographic crisis, economic and refugee crisis, I aim to explore the genetic horizon of global fear against the backdrop of ‗viral transmission' and contamination, typifying the global cultural economy. I do so with a view to articulating a tentative poetic of the dystopian global imagination.

The above is an enquiry into globalism construed as a discursive mode and its reverberations and representations in post 9 /11 film productions, more specifically in cinematic productions of the dystopia genre. It is premised on two central theses: that underlying globalisation is the ideology of globalism, i.e. a discourse comprising the doctrines and rhetoric of the globalization phenomenon; that, as a reflection of the ‗post-apocalyptic subject', dystopianism is endemic in indeed constitutive of the very ‗cultural logic' of global capitalism, indicative i.e. of its systemic apprehensions, projections and contradictions. Looking at the congeniality of dystopian forms as global cultural productions turned mainstream I seek to observe the extent to which the centrality of dystopia in the global age is fueled by the rhetoric of globalism and the latter's bearing on the insatiable appetite for catastrophe defining the twenty first century sensibility. As well as considering what I deem to be a range of deep-seated dominants symptomatic of the global order, e.g. the war-on-terror, precarity and the demographic crisis, economic and refugee crisis, I aim to explore the genetic horizon of global fear against the backdrop of ‗viral transmission' and contamination, typifying the global cultural economy. I do so with a view to articulating a tentative poetic of the dystopian global imagination.

Tapping into current debates on the status of English outside versus within English-speaking countries, the paper tackles reverberations of the condition of literacy prior to 1989 with a view to observe how high levels of literacy in the mother tongue contributed to advanced proficiency in English. More specifically, it seeks to examine the direct bearing of popular culture, television in particular, on the practice of English as a/the second acquired language. By comparing the experience of Romania with that of Western or fellow South European countries, I argue that the use of subtitles (as opposed to dubbing) by Romanian national television proved instrumental in ensuring a professional approach to English, setting as standards English spoken as a mother tongue. As well as analysing the linguistic impact of undubbed films on student comprehension and speaking skills, the paper reflects on ways in which direct access to the original film soundtracks acted as a form of cultural mediation, and managed to counter at least in part the effects of censorship and of the drastically limited access to information. In so doing, it makes a case for the need for rethinking shallow notions of 'interactive methods' in the age of information dominant in the ELT literature post-1980s. It does so by noting that the advent of the World Wide Web, digital media, and cable television have not always and perforce resulted in significantly higher levels of English language proficiency. By tracing the discussion to the 'global turn' of English in New Europe, we aim at going beyond a case study of Romanian HE, in order to make it relevant to the current state of the discipline in the European learning space. We thus expect to engage polemically if in passing aspects pertaining to EU multilingualism policies and the rhetoric of multiculturalism informing the study and teaching of English at HE level.