Other worlds, other languages

If one had to point out a category in the dictionary of twentieth-century culture which would cause the most discussion, it would surely be “alterity/otherness”. Philosophers, anthropologists, literary scholars have been pondering over the nature of otherness for a long time and it seems they gave up on their searches quickly. What is different fascinates us, but also evokes (sometimes unfounded) fear. Other people, speaking other languages, belonging to other worlds, are close to us, but at the same time very far away. It is said that another culture is unrecognisable, however, it attracts translators and travellers, for whom the caftan of their own culture has become too tight.

The world is neither one, nor does it speak one language. Various voices sound around us and it depends on us whether their strangeness will remain forever outside our range, or if it becomes a part of our own existence. For deluding is the conviction that otherness is only a privilege (or curse) of others. We are also different, not only for ourselves, but also for those others whom we would like to conform to ourselves. Otherness is not one-sided, but determines all possible relations between people, between cultures, between languages. Otherness – what causes that not all people are the same – is a richness, not impoverishment.

The second edition of the International Joseph Conrad Literature Festival has grown from the conviction on the inexhaustible richness of languages and worlds other than our own. Although we do not dedicate our festival to Conrad, then it cannot go unnoticed that our patron was one of the most diligent explorers of otherness in the modern culture of the West. In spending his life under foreign flags, venturing to territories untouched by western civilisation (and conquered by this civilisation), he experienced strangeness and otherness like almost no other European writers and wrote about this amazing experience like no other. Today, when we try to understand foreign cultures, master their heritage, translate their thoughts and words, whether we want it or not, we follow in Conrad's footsteps, writing further chapters to his masterpiece.

Today, one must speak about otherness in various ways. We are farthest from attributing any of the languages or discourses with a privileged position. There is no such centre in Poland, or in the world, from which other regions are looked down upon. We have to finally become aware of the fact that the world – in contradiction to corporate interests – does not propagate the same values, does not have the same goals, does not connect entirely according to the same rules. Of course, we must show common places, possible to inhabit by many of us, but differences, different viewpoints, discord in perspectives must be shown and multiplied.

The Krakow Joseph Conrad International Literature Festival accepted this philosophy from the very beginning. This year, placing the motto of otherness onto the foreground, we want to draw your attention even more strongly to the multi-voice character of our culture and idea of alterity attributed to it. Our rich programme, in which the East discusses with the West, top literature with low literature, philosophy with popular culture, clearly shows that division is not a failure, but a preliminary condition for any true discussion.

Michał Paweł Markowski, Artistic Director of the Festival
Piotr Mucharski, Programme Director of the Festival