"Borders and Language" with guests Olivia Hellewell and Pierre-Alexis Mével

Borders Talk: Dots, Dashes & the Stories They Tell

Send us a Message

Liv is the translator of The Fig Tree by Goran Vojnović, which you can order directly from the publisher Istros Books, or via our friendly local Five Leaves Bookshop. She mentions Vojnović’s (untranslated into English) first novel, Čefuli Raus.
Liv wanted to share the following excerpt from The Fig Tree, connected to our conversation:
"You're on the other side of the border, you two, were her first words as she came through the door.
It's like someone's drawn a border through me. They've drawn borders through us, through all of us. They've drawn borders between me, my mother and my father. It's now up to someone else to decide if I can see my parents." (2020, 289)
Liv has also shared Boyd Tonkin’s review of the Fig Tree for Arts Desk (December 15, 2020), which gives quite a good bit of context about the history and the language.
Alex has been working with Impacd CIC.
You can read about Easy Language in Christiane Maaß’s open-access book, Easy Language – Plain Language – Easy Language Plus: Balancing Comprehensibility and Acceptability.
Alex discussed the politics and practice of subtitling Mathieu Kassovitz’s iconic film La Haine (1995). Apparently La Haine is 30 years old next year (eek!) – but since time is a patriarchal construct, we’re not worried about this.
Hardcore listeners may be interested in reading Alex’s work on subtitling La Haine – they can sate that appetite here.
Gillian shared the etymology of 'translation' from the Oxford English Dictionary.
For photographic evidence of the “Thinkmetric” sign, see this photo by Matthew Redrich.
Joual is a version of Québécois French, with roots in working-class Montreal.
Find out more about the film Bye Bye Tiberias here.
Zalfa quoted from an article by Francesca Leveridge and Alex in which they argue that “subtitled films constitute hybrid spaces where languages come into contact.”
The winery Liv visited in “Borders I Have Known” was Radikon winery.

The material in this podcast is for informational purposes only. The personal views expressed by the hosts and their guests on the Borders Talk podcast do not constitute an endorsement from associated organisations.
Thanks to the University of Leicester's School of Arts, Media and Communication for use of recording equipment; to India Downton for her invaluable expertise; and to the Foundation for Canadian Studies in the UK and the School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies at the University of Nottingham for financial support.
Music: “Corrupted” by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com
Edited by Steve Woodward at podcastingeditor.com