Dear fellow participants of the Literary Ark 2011,
in order to facilitate a few fruitful and joyful Round Table Discussions during the upcoming festival in Armenia, the organization would kindly ask each invited writer or person to write a small private paper about a topic of choice (1 – 3 A4’s).
In this paper, that should be presented by the writer as a form of introduction to the rest of the group during the discussions, one could give a concise overview of those happenings, achievements or developments that have marked one’s personal trail during the last ten years that have passed since October 2001 – when the first edition of the Literary Ark Festival was being held in a period of fresh post 9/11 paranoia whilst American bomber jets were flying over towards Afghanistan on their hunt for Bin Laden.
Apart from these concise bio- bibliographical notes, it would be highly appreciated if all participants could bring up one or several topics of interest that he or she would like to be discussed during the Round Table sessions. Topics could be of a purely literary kind, of course, like the matter raised by Christiane Lange of the LiteraturWERKstatt Berlin, who stated in a mail her concern about the quality and availability of good translations throughout our countries. “Without (good) translation there is no cultural exchange. This is oneof themost important thing we have to think about”, she wrote. Very true and valid, of course.
However, topics for discussion could also be of a broader kind, if desired. Such as the importance or absence of tradition in modern day literature, the coming of the e-book, as well as matters of cultural origin, the meaning of boundaries in a Europe that has been opening up inner boundaries while toughening up outer boundaries. Geert van Istendael, writer and former PEN chairman from Belgium, will spice up the Round Table meetings with a sharp discours on the freedom of expression. Haakan Sandell and Swantje Lichtenstein will try to start up a dialogue about Genre-Genius-Gender in the field of modern day poetry.
Writers from the Baltics will hopefully share with us some of their experiences gathered while travelling along the trail of destiny, leading from the heavily guarded outskirts of the former Sovjet Union towards the unmanned signposts of that other Union of bureaucracy and past grandeur: the EU. With Europe being a fading Abendland again, gasping for air in the shadow of rising superpowers like China, India and Brasil, economic and cultural frailty go hand in hand. Countries that were known for their elaborate and affluent subsidiary culture, are now relentlessly cutting on budgets for art while abundantly making policy of old resentments. Art and literature in the Netherlands, have been described by the moral majority as typical left wing hobbies that should remain a private and not a public matter. Will our culture and literature in Europe be strong enough to withstand the icy storms of economic recession or depression, or is this crisis showing what Europe really is – as a matter of fact: an emperor without any clothes. Driven by ephimeral fears for the purse of today, the continent is apt to swap its priceless heritage for the sake of a yen or a penny.
At the very end, no matter how diverse the topics we will bring in, the discussions at the table will come down to one defining question: what constitutes our selves and determines who we are? Both as individual writers who have travelled all this way and published what we did in order to end up where we find us at this very place and moment in the course of our lifes. As well as the members we also are, collectively, of this discernable group that will gather in Armenia with the special purpose to see and to listen, to hear and to speak, to exchange ideas and transcend bounderies. All this in order to raise understanding for each other and our closer selves, from the oldest and most dexterior outpost of our common continent.
Serge van Duijnhoven,Ark-constructor Filip van Zandycke and “Homo Ludens”-art & food-designer Arlette van Laar, all will try to monitor and present the Round Table-topics in such a way that the discussions will be tickling enough to surpass all too scholastic “impasses sans issue”.
“Somebody at one of these places asked me: “What do you do? How do you write, create?” You don’t, I told them. You don’t try. That’s very important: not to try, either for Cadillacs, creation or immortality. You wait, and if nothing happens, you wait some more. It’s like a bug high on the wall. You wait for it to come to you. When it gets close enough you reach out, slap out and kill it. Or if you like its looks you make a pet out of it.”
– Charles Bukowski
Topics suggested by Vahur Afanasjev:
Good evening
May i specify a bit what i have in mind for discussions:
1.)
* “E-books and Changes in the Literary Universe ” (THE E).
How will the e-development change the position of authors?
An e-book is still a book, but what if the whole concept of literature
will be changed to short passages, circulationg memes? Probably not
Twitter and Facebook, but some new development may render the writer
as a person obsolete – not in sence of Barthes, but in a very concrete
way nobody will pay us penny, everybody are authors, and writer’s
unions have to re-specialise on repairing boots or pc-s. Also, one can
e-publish (to blog, par example) with practically no cost, so the
ocean of text is growing rapidly. I remember i was afraid as a child
that i can’t even read all the books at home – well, i managed to read
more than half of those. Will our genius shine through this immense
amount of text? Will a specialist writer be needed? Some say people
get smarter all the time and the genius is omnipresent (especially in
Facebook, if you get my irony). Last but not least, down to earth, i
just want to know how are the e-book things going in your countries.
2.)
* “”The Effects of Globalisation on Minority Languages and National Culture” (THE EN).
The effects of globalisation.
In ex Soviet Union, some say the national culture is now even more in
danger than during russification in the SU. For Occidentals and even
in most of Orient, English is the lingua franca. How long can smaller
languages survive and are those needed at all? Could we gain the same
full set of colours, if we would write in the same language? Maybe
this is not so obvious topic for those whos native language widely
spoken, but as for Estonian, there are just about 1 million speakers.
Is native language a linguistic prison? Or if its an asset, how could
the written thoughts circulate more widely? Translation over Internet,
machine translation etc.
Well, overall, i’m sure we won’t be lacking things to talk about –
though i’d be very happy to read some more ideas beforehand.
Best regards
Vahur Afanasjev, Estonia
From: swali@gmx.de
Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2011 3:05 PM
Subject: Re: content discussion
Topics of Swantje Lichtenstein:
3) => ARTISTIC WAYS OF WRITING. Art, literature and the question of Genre in 21th century
4) => CREATION AND GENIUS. What is creative and uncreative writing?
5)=> GENIUS, GENDER, GENRE (How does genre, gender and the question of genius come together in literature?)
6) => AGAIN THE ANGER. Authorship, Subjectivity and Control
7)=> RADICAL ROOTS (The “radix” is the same (word) ground for the radical and the traditional, what does this mean?)
From: Haakan Sandell
8) The meaning of Genre after modernism (poetry, crime fiction, fantasy, novel etc). The question of “Genre in change”, lets say; Genre as something best to strengthen or to intermix; the meaning of Genre.
Explanation Haakan about the above:
From: Haakan Sandell
Subject: RE: content discussion
Well, Serge, Genre-Genius-Gender evolved in short hand dialogue soon sounding like a nice headline, then it is really up to anyone what they like it to contain; as a poet you have yourself certainly challenged expectations of genres the last twenty years (I know from reading you – as far that I can read Dutch) with performance poetry and mixed media, still poetry is a tradition lets say 2600 years old since the first elegiac an satirical Greek poets; and this is a tradition both conscious And unconscious, further complicated here by myself and Swantje being at the same time critical and supportive of it. You might for sure not regard your poetry as sacred, still you are likely to merit from the past´s sacred position of poetry, as something for example working in allusions you make, or if Opposing to that Mythos-carried heritage your opposition will even so be sat to work Inside the echoes of that cultural context and intertextuality. If we take Russia´s great modernist Marina Tsvetaeva she confessed to christian orthodoxy but – rather unwilling – recognized the spiritual powers in poetry as not angelic or “pure” but as elemental (or we might now say… driven by gender fantasies of fulfillment – or some other secularized formula). I think it might be interesting to this way somewhat lessen the gap to people who regard specific texts as literal sacred. To mention one thing.
Anyway, this was never a thesis, but a spontaneous response to the suggestion for brain storming after possible topics. Of course brain storming look rather peculiar if only one (or two) people are doing it.
And I am pretty sure that you exaggerate when you claim that you have no clue to what we were talking about. Genre has definitive changed a lot in a few decades, when high culture and popular culture has changed positions and intermixed. That was my key-word. Swantje responded.
“…of the Genius”…and also of Gender, and then not so much the awesome battle of sexual politics but literary works as obvious results of male/female mental fantasy worlds or mythography, “Männerphantasien” etc. Also other mutated distinctions; popular culture as high culture/high culture popularized/classical values/Genre in change/Genre as strongholds…Sacred text/secularized text?…And?
Peeter Saunter:
9) “Christian/Religious ethics in society”. (Not opposite in any way to what I called “Sacred text/secular text”).
Christiane Lange proposed:
10) I would like to propose to talk about translation – without (good) translation there is no cultural exchange. This is oneof themost important thing we have to think about
11)- Translation of prose and poetry and differences in between?
12)- the role of the so called small languages and translation?
13)- translation and the international book market?
14) or: Literatur and religion? there is a meeting with the patriarch…
Christiane Lange stelt ook voor om enige Poeziefilms (animaties) mee te brengen, en te vertonen. Zij schrijft: “I can propose to bring a number of poetry films with. We just organise our 6th ZEBRA poetry film festival and have a big archive with short films which base on a poem. I bring some dvds, and if there is interest we can watch it. I would need a cd-player, a beamer and a screen.”
see:http://www.literaturwerkstatt.org/index.php?id=736&L=1
Filip van Zandycke proposed a matter of thought on the basis of a quote from Kamiel Vanhole, who visited Armenia during the last Litrerary Ark back in 2001:
15)
from the book DE SPOORZOEKER by Kamiel Vanhole
page 150: “Twee dagen later zal iemand in volle ernst aan ieder van ons de vraag stellen waar we bij het ontwaken het eerst aan denken: aan de literatuur of aan ons vaderland” ….
page 150: “Two days afterwards, someone shall ask each of us very seriously the question ‘what the first thing in the morning is we do think about: literature or our homeland” ….
Voorstel van David Matevossian:
16) I think everything goes towards having an ARK WEB SITE, were the translations will be posted and the forum and disscussions wil be going on. In general this was suggested before as well, I think Haakan did that 😉 maybe in some other way and words, but main idea of having a place A PLACE, AN ARK ;)))
17) Hierbij aansluitend, het voorstel van Herbert Maurer voor een Translators Community:
Translating – transfering – transfoming: how can you translate “a country”, “a people” etc.
What about chosing a very short armenian text – and try to translate ist in our different languages ?
I did the project “translators community” two times in austria with wirters from tchechia, poland, slowenia, bosnia etc. translating together short pieces of poetry and prosa. it works – and creates a new community – with new discussions etc.
18) discussion about printed book, disappearing i the armenian public – what can we do, are there any alternatives (besides the electronic medias)?´
19) in the att. you can find a lecture of mine about “translatiung and transfering” starting with the coffee
20) another item would be – from the linguistic point of view – a panel about “indoeuropean language”: according to this quite old fashioned but striking theory we are all related to each other – grammar defining civilzation etc. my languages are german, armenian, english, italian, hebrew etc. let us continue and look, how the others are prepared to take part … crazy ideas however … yours – herbert maurer
Geert van Istendael proposes:
21) “I think it is an excellent idea to translate a short Armenian text into our different languages. Personally, I would prefer a poem. Perhaps some of us have the capacity of translating it into different languages. Of course, our Armenian friends know their own poets far better than we do. I think it would be wise to asj them to select this text. It is always advisable to have a few intermediary translations, e.g. into Russian, French, English. Which languages, this depends on the composition of the group. I it also advisable to discuss translation problems with each other, inlcuding, of course, with our Armenian friends. They grasp the subtleties of their language better than we do, don’t they?”
22) Zijn er voor schrijvers grenzen aan de Vrijheid van Meningsuiting? (Geert schreef hierover een compact essay in het NL en Frans. Zie hieronder de hele tekst)
Serge:
23) wat zijn de grondvesten van ons continent dat op zichzelf zo weinig fier en jegens anderen zo ongeinteresseerd overkomt.
24) de babelonische spraakverwarring die Europa kenmerkt, als bron van rijkdom en verscheidenheid.
25) het Brusselse Gordijn; vrije markten vereisen ijzeren grenzen. On est tous des etrangers. Europa sluit meer uit en buiten dan het absorbeert en verenigt.
26) Europa als een continent in verwarring, een reus op lemen voeten die zienderogen verschrompelt.
De opdracht van David bestaat er uit, in zeer ruime (te ruime) zin, om een discussie op gang te brengen tussen de verschillende genodigde schrijvers uit tal van landen in Europa,
27) hoe is de wereld voor de gasten (als schrijver) nu precies veranderd is in het afgelopen decennium. De vorige editie van ditzelfde festival vond plaats een maandje na 9/11. De vliegtuigen van de American Airforce vlogen toen over onze hoofden op weg naar Afghanistan Het festival vond plaats in een atmosfeer van lichte doom and gloom en van op handen zijnde ellende. Ditmaal zou het festival onder eenzelfde soort gesternte plaats kunnen hebben. Maar dan met het adumbratio van een economische katastrofe dat het gesprek zou kunnen overschaduwen, eerder dan dat van een nieuwe wereldkrijg die ons te wachten staat.
28) Ik denk dat het aangewezen zou zijn, om de diverse genodigden op persoonlijke titel te laten spreken hoe hij of zij het afgelopen decennium aan de bak is kunnen komen als schrijver en/of kunstenaar. Wat zijn of haar getijde heeft beinvloed dan wel beheerst.
29) Hoe hebben de schrijvers uit de Baltische landen (Estland, Letland, Litouwen) en overige recentelijk bij de EU aangesloten natiestaten, het afgelopen decennium beleefd. Wat heeft de Europese Unie hen opgeleverd, wat hebben ze zelf moeten inleveren? Is er na de Sovjetdictatuur sprake van een milder, Europees dictaat dat ervoor in de plaats gekomen is? Kan Estland nog voldoende zijn eigen identiteit bewaren en bewaken, in een Europa dat zich politiek en economisch steeds verder internationaliseert?
… Writers from the Baltics will hopefully share with us some of their experiences gathered while travelling along the trail of destiny, leading from the heavily guarded outskirts of the former Sovjet Union towards the unmanned signposts of that other Union of bureaucracy and past grandeur: the EU.
30) Hoe dienen economie en cultuur/literatuur zich in een beschaafde maatschappij (niet tussen aanhalingstekens) te verhouden
With Europe being a fading Abendland again, gasping for air in the shadow of rising superpowers like China, India and Brasil, economic and cultural frailty go hand in hand. Countries that were known for their elaborate and affluent subsidiary culture, are now relentlessly cutting on budgets for art while abundantly making policy of old resentments. Art and literature in the Netherlands, have been described by the moral majority as typical left wing hobbies that should remain a private and not a public matter. Will our culture and literature in Europe be strong enough to withstand the icy storms of economic recession or depression, or is this crisis showing what Europe really is – as a matter of fact: an emperor without any clothes. Driven by ephimeral fears for the purse of today, the continent is apt to swap its priceless heritage for the sake of a yen or a penny.
31) kan een utopisch gedachtengoed van de spelende en creatieve mens, enig nuttig weerzerk bieden in een istopische wereld van het harde gelag, van globalisering, mercantilisme, economische crisis en algehele – ook culturele – schraalte en schaarste?
32) wat zijn de favoriete literaire werken van de genodigden, dwars door de tijd heen, die in het afgelopen decennium veel voor hen betekend hebben?
33) Kan een mens er, met het verstrijken van de tijd, ueberhaupt in slagen om zichzelf te blijven? Of is de truc wellicht om gaandeweg in dit leven jezelf te worden?
At the very end, no matter how diverse the topics we will bring in, the discussions at the table will come down to one defining question: what constitutes our selves and determines who we are? Both as individual writers who have travelled all this way and published what we did in order to end up where we find us at this very place and moment in the course of our lifes. As well as the members we also are, collectively, of this discernable group that will gather in Armenia with the special purpose to see and to listen, to hear and to speak, to exchange ideas and transcend bounderies. All this in order to raise understanding for each other and our closer selves, from the oldest and most dexterior outpost of our common continent.
