Smarginature

Smarginature
A project by Daniela Cascella and Natasha Soobramanien
The LYD Writing Research Residencies, 2015/2016
Lydgalleriet, Bergen, 26/27 November 2016
Online, https://writingsoundbergen.wordpress.com, October-December 2016

Info and bookings: mei@lydgalleriet.no

Smarginature is a series of events, aimed at readers, writers, listeners, vocalists, translators, artists and anyone else interested in exploring the ways in which language, or languages—written, spoken, or overheard—can elude definition and trespass boundaries.

The series is inspired by a selection of texts which explore or enact such language slippages and shifting subjectivities. Central to these is Elena Ferrante’s tetralogy, The Neapolitan Novels (trans. Ann Goldstein), from which the term ‘smarginature’ is taken. Translated by Ann Goldstein as ‘dissolving boundaries’, ‘smarginature’ describes, in the novels, a state of psychological and existential crisis periodically experienced by one of the protagonists. Ferrante’s use of a technical printing term (‘outside of the margins’), suggests also the difficulties of fixing meaning—reality—in language.

Smarginature will feature performances and workshops by poet and artist Cia Rinne and artist and writer Claire Potter, as well as Radio Ferrante, during which local and international guests will be invited to join Daniela Cascella and Natasha Soobramanien—the organisers of Smarginature— to talk about their engagement with Ferrante’s work and beyond.

New online writing commissions by Hannah Black, Juliet Jacques, Jen Hofer, Bhanu Kapil, Ashaki M. Jackson and Mg Roberts will be published on a dedicated blog in the weeks before the event. Cascella and Soobramanien will also publish new writing alongside these commissions: enquiries into their own understanding of ‘smarginature’ and their engagements with other texts which explore this phenomenon.

Events are open to all, whether you know and love Ferrante’s novels or not. While all events will be held in English, ambivalence about expressing oneself in this language does not at all preclude participation—and may even be an advantage.

Smarginature was developed and programmed by writers Daniela Cascella and Natasha Soobramanien following their Lyd Writing Research Residency* at Lydgalleriet in September and December 2015.

*The LYD Writing Research Residencies were initiated by Cascella in 2015 with the aim of exploring a number of intersections and interactions that may occur between listening, reading, writing, translating, recording, silencing, conversing, with a focus on performative and collaborative approaches and with emphasis on discursive and reflexive aspects.
For more information about the project schedule and events, and the residencies, please visit: https://writingsoundbergen.wordpress.com

Tags: Cia Rinne, Claire Potter, Daniela Cascella, Natasha Soobramanien, Smarginature