Matthew Reynolds – Collaborative Language(s)

Abstract

This paper will consider language(s) in the context of scholarly collaboration. Typically, collaboration assumes a shared metalanguage, even when literature in several different languages is being discussed. But is it possible to imagine, and indeed plan, modes of collaboration in which linguistic diversity is more active in our practice, just as it is in the writing we research?  – In which thinking can happen through the collaboration of language(s)? This paper will explore the question both in theory and in practice, working with Naoki Sakai’s concept of ‘heterolingual address’ and David Gramling’s idea of ‘translational monolingualization’, and bringing them into conversation with recent collaborative works led by Caroline Bergvall such as Language Stations and Conference of the Birds.