Creating Global Peace & Co-existence through Language and Literature
The language consists of words and their meanings. While the former aids the communication, the latter creates friendships, and paves the way for global peace and co-existence. This is what we are going to see in LSS 2018. Through language we will be able understand each other much better since a language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers. When we learn a language other than our own mother tongue our vision broadens. Learning a foreign language, and the culture that goes with it, is one of the most useful things we can do to broaden the empathy and imaginative sympathy and cultural outlook of different societies. When you speak to a man in the language that he understands it goes into his head. If you speak to him in his mother tongue it goes into his heart. “Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation” said Noam Chomsky. Modern science also seems to recommend learning of languages. It is said that the neural networks in the brain strengthen as a result of language learning.
Like language, literature is the carrier of civilization. Without literature, history is silent, society is dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. “Poetry is the universal language which the heart holds with nature and itself. He who has a contempt for poetry, cannot have much respect for himself, or for anything else” says William Hazlitt. Every man lives in two realms: the internal and the external. The internal is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals, and religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms, and instrumentalities by means of which we live. All these are important for the completeness of one’s life in this world. “Literature must rest always on a principle, and temporal considerations are no principle at all. For, to the poet, all times and places are one; the stuff he deals with is eternal and eternally the same: no theme is inept, no past or present preferable” said Oscar Wilde. In our LSS 2018 we will be discussing language and literature that transcends temporal and special considerations. One has to learn from life or one can learn from literature because literature tells you something about life that life itself cannot tell. Literature gives you more than one life. It expands experience and opens new opportunities to the readers.
Language plays an important role in the modern society and represents diverse aspirations and needs of the society. Language connects cultures, traditions, and practices. Literature represents the hopes and aspirations of the different sections of the society. Literature introduces us to new worlds of experience. Literature connects people of different races, religions and cultures. The purpose of the Conference proposed by LLS 2018 is to explore the role of Language and Literature in bringing together the World Communities. The exact theme of the Conference is: Creating Global Peace & Co-existence through Language and Literature
To promote the importance of language learning and facilitate our understanding of literature, and broaden our knowledge of their role in serving the society, ICRD is organizing the LLS 2018 in Jakarta, which is one of the cultural centres of South Asia.
The LLS 2018 will look into various issues in relation to the use and learning of different languages and literature. This conference covers topics pertaining to Language and Literature in various institutional, social, and cultural contexts. The conference also welcomes presentations based on studies conducted from inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary perspectives, involving research into language/s in different academic disciplines. LLS 2018 hopes to provide an interesting platform for researchers, academics, language practitioners, policy makers and post-graduate students, to share knowledge ,exchange ideas and establish academic relationships.
The conference invites participation from members of the academia to submit unpublished theoretical, empirical and scientific papers focusing on the sub topics.
Dr. Ramaratnam
LLS2018 Academic Chair
