Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Kultur-, Sozial- und Bildungswissenschaftliche Fakultät - Institut für Asien- und Afrikawissenschaften

 

Plakat Sinophone meets FrancophonieSUMMARY AND KEY OBJECTIVES

In the past decades, debates on regional identities, linguistic diversity and cultural production in many parts of Africa, Asia and the Americas and have centred on the terms “Sinophone” and “Francophonie”. Both terms are situated in highly controversial fields of inquiry: regional identity formation vis-à-vis dominant political and cultural centre (China/Beijing and France/Paris), cultural production in the context of linguistic hegemony (dominance of French and Mandarin Chinese and, as a result, the marginalization of regional languages), and the negotiation of alternatives that transgress the aforementioned A vs. B dichotomies. Despite these similarities, there are also obvious differences underlying the concepts of Sinophone and Francophonie. With a history of more than 130 years and strong institutional backing from France, Francophonie is a firmly established and universally recognized term. By contrast, the term Sinophone denotes a novel and emerging concept that is currently mostly debated among ethnic Chinese writers and academics outside China, notably in the United States and Taiwan. In the light of these similarities and differences, a comparative approach to these controversial concepts seems self-evident. Surprisingly, however, such an attempt has never been made before. It is therefore the key objective of this conference to bring together leading international scholars of Sinophone Studies and Francophonie and to explore and compare
the conceptual boundaries underlying both terms.
 
 

THURSDAY, APRIL 12TH

 

OPENING

WELCOME ADDRESSES

Marcelo Caruso,
Vice-Dean for Research and International Affairs (tbc)

Ursula Hans, Head of the International Office

Susanne Gehrmann and Henning Klöter, Convenors
9:30 -10:00

KEYNOTES

Françoise Lionnet (Harvard University and UCLA):
Francophonies and their Discontents

Shu-mei Shih (University of California in Los Angeles):
Sinophone as History and Sinophone as Theory
10:00-12:00 

 

CULTURAL POLITICS

Ien Ang (University of Western Sydney):
The Cultural Politics of Chineseness after the Rise of China

Ibrahima Diagne (Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar):
From Senghorian Francophonie to a Transcultural Future. The Ongoing Relationship between China and Senegal in the Context of Increasing Globalization
13:30-15:00 

 

BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

Henning Klöter (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin):
Sinophone Literature from a Sociolinguistic Perspective

Kangni Alemdjrodo (Université de Lomé):
French and Chinese Languages in Postcolonial Togo
15:30-17:00

 

FRIDAY, APRIL 13TH

 

9:30-11:00 

CONTROVERSIES

Olga Lomová (Charles University in Prague):
What is the Sinophone Good for? Reflections of a Literary
Historian

Susanne Gehrmann (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin):
Francophonie and Francophone Literatures in and out of
Africa

 

11:30-13:00 

CARIBBEAN ENTANGLEMENTS

Kathleen Gyssels (Universiteid Antwerpen):
A Diaspora in a Diaspora: the Chinese Migration to the
Caribbean Archipelago, from In/visible to Un/Creole?
Literary and Theoretical Considerations in Contemporary
Circum-Caribbean Narratives

Brian Bernards (University of Southern California, Dornsife):
Francophone Caribbean Theory in Sinophone Literary
Studie

 

14:00 - 15:30

SOUTHEAST ASIAN ENTANGLEMENTS

Mamadou Fall (Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar):
Indochina and the Dilemma between Confucianism and the
French model

Wai-chew Sim (Nanyang Techn. University, Singapore):
Sinophone + : Language Ecological Considerations in
Selected Southeast Asian Texts

 

16:00 - 17:00

ROUNDTABLE: CONCEPTS OF WORLD LITERATURE IN
CHINESE AND FRENCH

Kathleen Gyssels, Françoise Lionnet, Shu-mei Shih (tbc)

  

SATURDAY, APRIL 14TH

 

CHOICES AND NOSTALGIAS

Julia Pröll (Universität Innsbruck):
Adopting French: Migrant Sinophone Authors in France and
Canada – A Comparative Approach

Alison Groppe (University of Oregon):
The (Wandering) Songstress and the Sinophone:
Nostalgia for 50s-60s Hong Kong Popular Music & Movie
Musicals in Films by Tsai Mingliang and Royston Tan

Bernadette Desorbay (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin):
The Francophonie of the 21st Century will be ‚Archipelagic‘
or it Will not Be. Asia Paving the Way?
9:30 - 11:45

 

CONCLUDING ROUNDTABLE: THE CONTESTED FIELDS OF THE SINOPHONE AND FRANCOPHONIE

Kangni Alemdjrodo, Henning Klöter, Olga Lomová
12:15- 13:15


CONFERENCE VENUE

HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN
INSTITUTE OF ASIAN AND AFRICAN STUDIES
INVALIDENSTR. 118, 10115 BERLIN

3RD FLOOR, ROOM 315
4TH FLOOR, ROOM 410

 

PUBLIC TRANSPORT

U6 NATURKUNDEMUSEUM
S1/S2/S25/S26 NORDBAHNHOF