Conversations About Language & Culture

This compendium includes the following 5 complete books featuring renowned researchers David Bellos, Michael Berry, Nick Couldry, Denis McQuail and Carol Padden providing fully accessible insights into cutting-edge academic research while revealing the inspirations and personal journeys behind the research. A detailed preface highlights the connections between the different books and all five books are broken into chapters with a detailed introduction and questions for discussion at the end of each chapter:

I. Babbling Barbarians: How Translators Keep Us Civilized - A conversation with David Bellos, Professor of French Literature and Comparative Literature at Princeton University. This conversation examines many features of language, translation and translation studies, including the value of a translation as opposed to the original work, translating humour, the Bergman Effect, and dives into his translations of 19th-century works of French fiction.

II. China, Culturally Speaking - A conversation with Michael Berry, Professor of Contemporary Chinese Cultural Studies, UCLA. Berry is also a world-renowned Chinese literary translator and film scholar. After discussing the inspiring influence his English teacher had on him, the conversation covers a wide range of topics such as the appeal of literary translation, modern and contemporary Chinese literature, the history and development of Chinese cinema, popular culture in modern China, censorship, and the importance of staying true to one’s values.

III. The Value of Voice - A conversation with Nick Couldry, Professor of Media, Communications at LSE. This conversation explores how the media can be used as a filter to examine power structures, political movements, economic interests, democracy and our evolving notion of culture, the importance of voice and the challenge posed by media institutions that order the social, political, cultural, economic, and ethical dimensions of our lives.

IV. Perspectives on Mass Communication - A conversation with Denis McQuail (1935-2017), who was Emeritus Professor at the University of Amsterdam. McQuail is widely considered to be one of the most influential scholars in the history of mass communication studies. This conversation provides detailed insights into how examining the media, and in particular mass media, necessarily involves a careful, probing look at our societal values; the concepts, metrics and ideas that McQuail developed to measure the sociological influence of the media; the critical role of journalism in society and more.

V. Sign Language Linguistics - A conversation with Carol Padden, Chair in Language and Human Communication at UC San Diego. This conversation provides a detailed exploration of Padden’s personal experiences of growing up with American Sign Language, deaf culture, her early work with Bill Stokoe, the linguistic complexity, structure and properties of ASL and other sign languages, the role of gesture and embodiment, and the ways in which language forms are created, propagated, and conventionalized in natural environments throughout the world.

Howard Burton is the host and editor of all Ideas Roadshow conversations and was the Founding Executive Director of Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. He holds a PhD in theoretical physics and an MA in philosophy. Ideas Roadshow offers a series of 20 Collections, including Conversations About History, Volumes 1-3, Conversations About The History Of Ideas, Conversations About Politics, and Conversations About Religion.