UNIVERSITY OF CRAIOVA, FACULTY OF LETTERS
The 4th International Colloquium Language, Culture and Civilization
Craiova, September 20-22, 2012


Margin, marginal, marginalization


All human activities revolve around the ideas of ‘center’ and ‘margin’, so closely intertwined that are basically inseparable. A center cannot exist without a margin to define and delineate it, while the margin is intrinsically identified only with reference to a center.
The center has always been a versatile notion pertaining to different domains and bearing protean masks (literature, religion, sexuality, society, art, colonialism, etc.), with reference to which there has always been ‘a margin’ and, by way of consequence, something ‘marginal’, a representative of ‘the marginalized’.
The marginalized have covered a diverse range of population segments throughout human history. In ancient Sparta newly-born babes with physical deformities suffered the ultimate form of ‘marginalization’ in the sense that they were brutally killed because they could not fit the ideal of the perfect warrior, when of age. Sexual minorities have lived as early as the Old Testament on the margin of society for being ‘different’. Incurably ill people have suffered the wrongs of being excluded on that sole basis, while national minorities have experienced different forms of cultural, social, economic or political marginalization. The artists whose works have not embraced the accepted norms of the epoch have often been excluded, excommunicated or even expatriated. Furthermore, inanimate things, like words, have come to be marginalized to fit ‘politically correct’ discourse, as it happened with one recent edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain out of which the editor removed the word ‘nigger’ in 219 cases. Unsurprisingly, therefore, a whole linguistic register, i.e. slang, was marginalized for almost half a century in Romania. Under the communist regime slang was simply banned out of Romanian dictionaries because the authorities claimed that it was the language of the crime syndicate, a nonexisting reality in Romania.
Marginalization has never been eradicated even if children with disabilities are no longer murdered nowadays. Our intention is to bring under focus margins and marginalization in all domains of human activities and spirituality. We invite papers from a wide range of disciplines (anthropology, linguistics, semiotics, sociology, philosophy, literature, and the arts).
The organisers will welcome proposals for 20-minute papers in Romanian, French, English, Italian, Spanish, and German on any of the areas mentioned above.
Suggested (merely indicative) topics include:
- marginalization in literature, art, society, religion, etc.
- imposed marginalization versus freely consented self-marginalization at the level of communities or individuals
- to what extent a work of art suffers the consequences of its author’s marginalization?
- the status of the other languages when English will (probably) become even more prominent as a lingua franca
- linguistic taboos/politically correct language and communication
- ‘the marginal man concept’ introduced by Robert E. Park (Human Migration and the Marginal Man, American Journal of Sociology, 33, May 1928, pp. 881-893) and expanded by Everett V. Stonequist (The Marginal Man, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1937) is one of the consequences of migration. How has it developed in the time of globalization?

We invite presenters from among the academia, researchers, master and doctoral students.

Proposals for papers should include the name of the author(s) (max. 2); affiliation; address and email; the paper title; a summary of the proposed paper (150-250 words); the title and the summary will also be translated into another language (any of the colloquium); 3-5 key words; 5 bibliographical references (minimum).

Proposals should be sent to Laurenţiu Bălă: lbala@central.ucv.ro by August 1st 2012.

Notification of accepted papers will be made by August 15th 2012.

A selection of the articles will be published in Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Seria Ştiinţe filologice, Limbi străine aplicate, Anul VIII, Nr. 1/2012 and Nr. 2/2012, ISSN: 1841-8074. (Annals of the University of Craiova, Series Philology, Applied Foreign Languages, 8th Year)

The participation fee is of 35 Euro (160 RON for Romanian presenters) and will cover: the publication and posting of the Annals volume, a personalized file with the colloquium documents, refreshments during the breaks, lunch and festive dinner on September 21st and lunch on September 22nd. The fee does not cover travel and accommodation costs.