Kamila Shamsie’s novel Burnt Shadows traces the complex, interconnected web of relationships that the protagonist, Hiroko Tanaka, develops during her journeys. This study will begin by exploring the theme of identity in relation to Rosi Braidotti’s theory of nomadism which describes a character in a constant state of becoming as according to Braidotti, the nomad can always reconstruct him/herself in relation to the different experiences he/she encounters on his/her journeys. This serves partly as a migratory framework in my analysis of the identity development of Hiroko as she experiences dramatic historical events which span from Nagasaki in 1945 after the US nuclear bombing, to India during the independence struggle, to Pakistan after partition and finally to post-9/11 New York. These events provide the impetus for each of her physical relocations and her corresponding “inner” relocations. However, I argue that Rosi Braidotti’s theory of nomadism does not express the complex ways economic, political and cultural processes affect the character of Hiroko and will therefore analyze the role of place and social relations with regard to the development of Hiroko’s identity using John Urry’s paradigm of mobility which problematizes mobility processes and analyzes how they affect the individual and fragment national societies. The conflicts Hiroko encounters in her endeavor to feel at home will be analyzed. In addition, I will explore the border-crossing practices Hiroko uses to negotiate inclusion without becoming completely bounded by society’s norms and values. She constantly re-negotiates her identity through a process of adaptation and resistance and struggles to retain her individuality/difference in interaction with the collective as an attempt to coexist. I argue that Hiroko lives as a transmigrant, that is, a character in a constant process of migration. Her continuous movement is made possible through a complex web of social networks whereby Tanaka questions traditional definitions of nation, home, community and allegiance as she crosses the boundaries of national cultures and develops an identity which can be described as both local and global.
The Public Service Language Centre and Högskolan Dalarna are core partners in a two-year European Socrates Lingua funded project exploring informal and socially situated language learning for adults. The Language Café project (www.languagecafe.eu) draws on the existing and growing café culture around Europe and aims to create a network of language cafés which exist in real cafes and other publicly accessible social spaces. During this session, we will briefly outline the background to the Language Café project, report on progress to date, discuss the major challenges in setting up and sustaining a language café and present some of the support and publicity materials developed by the project. The project partners from the Public Service Language Centre in Vilnius and Högskolan Dalarna will compare examples of language cafés in Lithuania and Sweden. A presentation will follow regarding the different cultural traditions of teaching and teacher-student relationships in the different project partner countries. We will also discuss the meeting between the public and the private sector, i.e. academia and café owners, as well as between academia and the general public. Moreover, issues regarding how different methods of teaching and learning have influenced the success or failure of a language café will be presented.
The Language Café: Intercultural communication in process The Language Café, originally a Lingua 1 project supported by the European Union, builds on the existing café culture in Europe, with a focus on an informal, social setting, encouraging wider participation in language learning within the community. The café offers an accessible learning situation characterised by the participants’ active, voluntary engagement and is based on their own experiences and needs as language learners. The transnational environment provides the potential for border-crossings between the different nationalities, religions, and languages represented by the individuals in the groups. The café concept itself is anchored in second and foreign language learning theories, especially those with a focus on sociocultural and intercultural communicative aspects, including Kramsch, Hyland, MacIntyre, Lantolf, Byram, and Risager. The cafés provide a place for spontaneous, informal interaction, which motivates the individual to actively participate in the process of language learning. Thus, motivation has proven to be an important aspect of communication in a multilingual environment. In our paper, we will describe the background of The Language Café project, including information about the partners involved, the planning of the cafés, the development of material, the execution of the café concept, and the assessment of the cafés developed. Feedback from café participants illuminates the many challenges that arise due to the multilingual, multigenerational, and multicultural background of the individuals. The interaction of the participants while practicing a second language will be illustrated in the presentation through audio recordings. Moreover, we will offer analyses of communicative strategies and processes in light of relevant intercultural communication research.