Page 13 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 11(2) (2023)

‘Between Myself and Myself Lies my True Country’:
Exploring the Dissonant Legacy of Colonial Worlds
as a Researcher and as an Heiress
»Med mano in menoj leži moja resnična dežela«:
raziskovanje disonantne zapuščine kolonialnih svetov
kot raziskovalka in dedinja

Michèle Baussant
National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS), Université Paris Nanterre, France
michele.baussant@cnrs.fr

13
Abstract
ti This article focuses on the linguistic, spatial and temporal cartography of attachments among displaced
people and how it shaped my research interests. Based on experience and several fieldworks, I retrace the
legacy of this cartography through the broken tongues - the different languages they inhabit, and use as
ta ry the ghosts of several languages, place names, daily ritual and commemorative practices, objects, sens-
a means of preserving their imaginary presence in their native country or countries of origin - that car-

es and sensations. By emphasising the malleability of languages, spaces and material things, I aim to ex-
plore how temporality can be traversed, stopped, restarted, turned back and projected forward through
di places. This exploration leads me to address the diversity of populations and their history of previous
displacements – a heterogeneity that images of exiles from Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, or Morocco tend to
relegate to the background. This emphasis allows for better understanding of how each border crossing
has redrawn the cartography of attachments and detachments, displacements and the crystallisation of
social boundaries, and how each rupture has reinvented continuity.
here Izvleček
Keywords: broken tongue, temporality, cartography of attachments, displacement, colonial worlds

Članek se osredotoča na jezikovno, prostorsko in časovno kartiranje navezanosti med razseljenimi
osebami ter na to, kako je to oblikovalo moja raziskovalna zanimanja. Na podlagi izkušenj in številnih
terenov ponovno beležim dediščino teh kartiranj skozi »zlomljene jezike« – skozi različne jezike, ki jih
razseljene osebe uporabljajo kot sredstvo, s katerim si prizadevajo ohraniti zamišljeno prisotnost v svoji
studiauniversitatis domovini ali domovinah, ki nosijo duhove različnih jezikov, krajevnih imen, dnevnih obrednih in spo-
minskih praks, predmetov, čutov ter občutkov. Skozi poudarek na prožnosti jezikov, prostorov in mate-
rialnih stvari raziskujem, kako začasnost prečiti, jo ustaviti, ponovno zagnati, obrniti nazaj in projicira-
ti naprej skozi kraje. Skozi to raziskovanje obravnavam raznolikost prebivalstev in zgodovino njihovih
preteklih razselitev – heterogenosti, ki jo podobe izgnancev iz Alžirije, Egipta, Tunizije ali Maroka obi-
čajno potisnejo v ozadje. Ta poudarek omogoča, da bolje razumemo, kako je vsako prehajanje meje na
novo zarisalo zemljevide navezanosti in odtujitev, premikov ter kristalizacije družbenih meja in kako je
vsak prelom ponovno ustvaril kontinuiteto.
Ključne besede: zlomljen jezik, časovnost, zemljevidi navezanosti, premiki prebivalstva, kolonialni svetovi

https://doi.org/10.26493/2350-5443.11(2)13-26 © author/authors