Encountering 'Illegal' Immigrants: Future Citizens or People "Out of Place"?
Location
Beaman A&B
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
27-9-2013 10:00 AM
Description
The US is home to an estimated 11 million people who are here illegally, and to an estimated 5 million US citizen children with undocumented parents. These 16 million individuals live, go to school and work in communities throughout the country; in a city like Nashville, it’s likely that we all will encounter several such individuals every day, as we engage in our normal routines. What does this mean, both to us, and to the undocumented persons with whom we engage? How do we communicate our differences, our similarities and our views? In this talk Dr. Barsky will discuss the “first encounter” with undocumented immigrants from the perspectives of language, translation and interpretation. As the debate rages in the Congress about how to manage, admit, deport and integrate different kinds of immigrants, it’s crucial to understand what is at stake in the linguistic interaction between ourselves and these persons, deemed “others.” More specifically, and in order to contribute to our understanding of the translation process, we will think about what translation does from a somewhat uncharacteristic perspective that focuses not only upon the transformation of linguistic material from one national language to another, but also on the resistance to this process, with reference to materials deemed inadmissible, uttered by people who we consider outsiders, such as “illegals.” At the same time, we will consider another potentially uncomfortable encounter, with literary works that are considered by our courts to be “obscene.” In making this comparison, between the undocumented and the “obscene,” Dr. Barsky suggests that the linguistic material at issue in such interactions is not necessarily just untranslatable, but rather undesirable in translation, and therefore untranslatable, because we treat both as “filth” and “dirt,” that is, as matter that is deemed in its filthiness to be “out of place.”
Recommended Citation
Barsky, Robert, "Encountering 'Illegal' Immigrants: Future Citizens or People "Out of Place"?" (2013). Humanities Symposium. 9.
https://repository.belmont.edu/humanities_symposium/2013/2013/9
Encountering 'Illegal' Immigrants: Future Citizens or People "Out of Place"?
Beaman A&B
The US is home to an estimated 11 million people who are here illegally, and to an estimated 5 million US citizen children with undocumented parents. These 16 million individuals live, go to school and work in communities throughout the country; in a city like Nashville, it’s likely that we all will encounter several such individuals every day, as we engage in our normal routines. What does this mean, both to us, and to the undocumented persons with whom we engage? How do we communicate our differences, our similarities and our views? In this talk Dr. Barsky will discuss the “first encounter” with undocumented immigrants from the perspectives of language, translation and interpretation. As the debate rages in the Congress about how to manage, admit, deport and integrate different kinds of immigrants, it’s crucial to understand what is at stake in the linguistic interaction between ourselves and these persons, deemed “others.” More specifically, and in order to contribute to our understanding of the translation process, we will think about what translation does from a somewhat uncharacteristic perspective that focuses not only upon the transformation of linguistic material from one national language to another, but also on the resistance to this process, with reference to materials deemed inadmissible, uttered by people who we consider outsiders, such as “illegals.” At the same time, we will consider another potentially uncomfortable encounter, with literary works that are considered by our courts to be “obscene.” In making this comparison, between the undocumented and the “obscene,” Dr. Barsky suggests that the linguistic material at issue in such interactions is not necessarily just untranslatable, but rather undesirable in translation, and therefore untranslatable, because we treat both as “filth” and “dirt,” that is, as matter that is deemed in its filthiness to be “out of place.”
Comments
Featured Presentation
Convocation Credit: Academic Lecture