Border Tongues | 'Searching for Language'

Language forms the core of who we are, encapsulating our identity and how we perform it in our socio-cultural spaces. Language, then spoken in a space formerly designed and imagined for a homogenous society in the diasporas, becomes a place of struggle for immigrants. A mirror of exile and the experiences that encapsulate it.In this episode, we will speak with Jonë Zhitia about her essay ‘Nadryw | Sprache fühlen’ (“Feeling Language”).In her writing, Jonë explores language as an antagonism that places her war-refugee and migrant experiences in an ongoing dialogue between homes in transit.Jonë Zhitia, born in Munich in 1996, is a Sociology and Literary Writing student at the University of Leipzig and the German Literature Institute. In 2020, she co-founded the sustainable and feminist online magazine EKOLOGISKA MAG and contributes to SZ jetzt, among other publications. Jonë’s work has appeared in literary magazines such as JENNY, Akzente (Hanser Verlag), and the US publication The Common. In 2022, she was awarded the Wortmeldungen Förderpreis by the Ulrike Crespo Foundation for her piece ‘Nadryw | Feeling Language,’ published by SUKULTUR in June 2023.This year, Jonë received a stipend to work on her first novel and is currently a writer in residence in Goslar.Thank you, Fjolla Bunjaku, for reading parts of Jonë’s essay for this episode.Translation from German: Leanne Cvetan.Intro music: North-Albanian Instrumental.