Reading
Transcending Borders: Yoko Tawada and the Fluidity of Language

Reading with author Yoko Tawada

Tue, 09/25/2018
6:30 PM - 20:30 The Japan Foundation, Toronto

Join us for a reading and conversation with the internationally-acclaimed writer Yoko Tawada as we discuss language, literature and crossing borders. The event will be moderated by Dr. Ted Goossen and PhD candidate, Yasmin Aly. The two will interview Yoko Tawada and explore her creative writing process, translation in literature and how meaning can change within a language, and how it can be used to transcend borders. The discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A and book signing. Yoko Tawada’s books will be available for purchase at the event.
 
Yoko Tawada was born in Tokyo and currently resides in Berlin. She writes in Japanese and German and has won numerous literary awards. Many of her works have been translated into English and other languages.

Ted Goossen (b. 1948) teaches Japanese literature and film at York University in Toronto. He is coeditor of Monkey Business International and the general editor of The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories, and has published translations of stories and essays by Hiromi Kawakami, Haruki Murakami, Yōko Ogawa, Sachiko Kishimoto and Naoya Shiga, among others.

Yasmin Aly is a researcher, artist, and educator invested in seeing international and local artists contribute to Toronto's cultural landscape through critical and contextualized art that speaks to the condition of a racialized cultural existence. Born in Cairo and drawing on lived and labored experiences in Germany and Egypt, she moved to Toronto to complete her PhD and further explore concepts of coloniality, representation, feminist activism, and art. She is currently a doctoral student at the University of Toronto completing research Arab and Muslim representations in contemporary German film and literature. Aly teaches courses on German language and culture at the University of Toronto and at the Goethe-Institut.

Please note that space is limited and you must RSVP to ensure entrance. Telephone 416-966-1600 or via the website.