Living-in-Between-Languages@Borderlands.Global

Abstract

The voices of the ìliterary peripheryî escape the suppression of
invisibility by translating themselves into more ìuniversal languages.î
The literary system acting as one of the repositories of cultural
memory is in this way forced to reshape, conform or reinvent itself
into new literary expressions.
I will study the Basque case as it has been placed at the periphe-
ries of Spanish cultural life but in the last decades jumped into the
international literary system by translating what had only belonged
to the intimate Basque collectivity. Is this exposure an attempt to
validate themselves after decades of linguistic isolation? How do
political views interact with this linguistic phenomenon? What is
the relation between the national identity and the expression of such
in a translated format? Does the ìIî that writes represent the Basque
author or a mirrored image of him or her? How do we cross linguistic
barriers without losing identities? This is not a new scenario in the
global literary system but we are finding new ways to overcome it.
This literary projection of the Basque culture is supported by other
cultural initiatives that accompany the literary event. Although the
linguistic isolation was partly due to the linguistic challenges of the
Basque language itself, it is interesting to see how the Spanish and
the global literary community receives these new translations that
are contextualized in a political and militant decision not to pursue
global recognition through violent venues.