16th International Conference of the Estonian Association of Comparative Literature

The keynote speakers are renowned poetry (and translation) scholars: Claudia Benthien (University of Hamburg), Francis R. Jones (Newcastle University), Jahan Ramazani (University of Virginia), A. E. Stallings (University of Oxford), Peeter Torop (University of Tartu), Mihhail Lotman (University of Tartu), and Rein Raud (Tallinn University). The programme also includes roundtables on the translation of Ukrainian poetry, led by Daniele Monticelli (Tallinn University) and Anna Verschik (Tallinn University), and on the translation of Estonian poetry, led by Jaanus Valk (UTKK, University of Tartu).

Over the four days of the conference, 20 thematic sessions will be held, focusing on poetry translation and reception; transmedial, multimodal, and multilingual poetry; the formation of canons and anthologies; glocality and urban space; gender and the female voice in poetry; the question of national identity in poetry, and much more. The detailed programme can be found HERE.

Poetry is inherently “worldly”, both polytemporal and polyspatial, as stated by Jahan Ramazani. While poems belong to their immediate historical moment and national culture, they are at the same time transnational as well as transhistorical through their forms, techniques, rhetorical strategies, and language. (J. Ramazani, Poetry in the Global Age, 2020). Drawing on the concept of “world poetry,” the conference explores the global creation, circulation, translation, and reception of poetry, with particular attention to how these processes are shaped by the digital environment, which has brought forth new media and forms of poetry.

Poetry lives and circulates more vibrantly than ever before—not only in books and digital formats, but also in physical spaces and the public sphere, as keynote speaker Claudia Benthien has noted (Public Poetry, 2023). Poetry thrives in many ways and forms in the UNESCO City of Literature Tartu as well, where various poetry events will take place during the conference: on October 2 at 18:00, a multilingual poetry evening “Poetry in Languages – Tartu Poets” at the bar Sulps; on October 3 at 17:30, an evening of conference participants’ poetry “Kaleidoscope of World Poetry” at the Tartu Kirjanduse Maja; on October 3 at 19:00, an international TarSlämm Poetry Slam night at Vilde and Vine.

The conference is organized in cooperation with three Estonian research projects. Two of them are funded by the Estonian Research Council: “The Factor of Lyric Poetry in the Formation of Small Literatures” (PRG1106), led by Liina Lukas, and “Translation in History, Estonia 1850–2010: Texts, Agents, Institutions, and Practices” (PRG1206), led by Daniele Monticelli. The third project, “Voices of Youth in Digital Age Poetry: Poetics, Attitudes, and Identities,” led by Rebekka Lotman, is funded by the Ministry of Culture. The conference is further supported by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Tartu, the Tallinn University Research Fund of the School of Humanities and the Rector of Tallinn University, and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

The conference is free of charge and all poetry lovers, as well as those interested in literature and culture, are welcome to attend both the thematic sessions and the plenary lectures.

For more information:
Daria Zimarin, daria.zimarin@ut.ee