Queer multilingualisms, code-switching, and membra(I)nes: A lecture
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17169/ogj.2025.295Keywords:
Agency, Migration, Performativity, Postcoloniality, QueernessAbstract
The membra(I)ne—porous, allows for exchange and interactivity, not yet traced or understood but exists in proximity to—guides the text’s content and format. This performative essay follows the author’s thoughts as she traces the figure of the membra(I)ne in an autotheoretical and informal manner intertwined with a collaborative project (with Antkek Engel) on multilinguality. It revolves around migration and queerness, both as conditions that rely on code-switching to relate and navigate the world, various forms of discrimination, and the wish to connect; with other humans, with an audience, with other animals. The text is set against the backdrop of contemporary EU geopolitics. An article that turns into a diary that turns into a lecture that turns into an article and invites participatory and interactive elements through anonymous writing allows for seemingly unedited thoughts, familiar technical mishaps, and connection beyond the standard format of the journal article and the author/reader binary.
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