Monday 15 November 2010

Language and Place blog carnival

I'm delighted, since both language and place are preoccupations close to my heart, to have a recent piece in the new >Language >Place blog carnival whose first edition has now been published. The new carnival is the brainchild of prolific writer, editor and photo-video artist Dorothee Lang. She's German, but most often writes for web publication in English and her work has strongly appealed to me since I first discovered it. It's no coincidence, I think, that many of the web writers and artists whose work I most enjoy are bi- or multi-lingual, bi- or multi-cultural.  I need only think of some posts that moved and intrigued me just last week, from three of my long-time, very special blogger friends, Natalie, Marja-Leena and Beth, which drew deeply and beautifully on their experience of multi-cultural backgrounds and moving from one place and/or language to another.  It's all about history, layers, disjunctions and consequently heightened sensibilities. 

This is also true of many of the multi-cultural and cosmopolitan bloggers I've now discovered through their participation in the new carnival. It's a rich array of contributions, skilfully curated to bring out connections, correspondences and contrasts both obvious and less obvious. The writers' own summaries are combined here with a division into different areas of commonality. I use the word 'curated' advisedly - it's like being guided into different rooms in an exhibition. I very much enjoyed every one of them. I love this project and look forward to seeing what it may bring together and how it may expand in future.

5 comments:

marja-leena said...

Your article has a well-deserved place in that blog carnival, Jean. Thanks for the link to it - such a wealth of fascinating reading and blogs there! Thanks too for the kind mention.

Dick said...

Congratulations, Jean, and, yes, thanks for that link. What an interesting and timely project.

PS Time soon, surely, for a mini-swarm in London. Any thoughts as to when/where?

Jean said...

Dick, yes, that would be great. Will be in touch.

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Jean, thanks very much for mentioning me - your presence is always a joy, here and at my place.

Beth said...

Just found out about this and hope to participate in the future! Your contribution was wonderful and inspiring, and thanks for your kind words here.