Poetry Debates III: “Who Owns Poetry?” – A Review

20 December 2023

Photo: private

Who owns poetry? With this provocative question, the third Poetry Debates series took a critical look at the accessibility of poetry, explored the poetic quality of song lyrics and new popular poetry formats such as slam poetry, and reflected on the influence that digitalization has had on the book market. Four public events brought together poets, performers, and scholars to debate different positions on this topic. The series was conceived and curated by Henrik Wehmeier in collaboration with Claudia Benthien.

The first debate to take place at the Katholische Akademie Hamburg explored the characteristics of poetic language and how it differs from everyday communication as well as simple language, which is intended to create greater inclusion. Poet Steffen Popp read from his poetry collections Dickicht mit Reden und Augen und 118. Afterwards, literary scholar and psychologist Clara Cosima Wolff presented a translation of Steffen Popp's poem “Fenster” in simple language and outlined some general thoughts on the translatability of poetry, for example, into sign language. Together with the audience, the panel discussed the ways in which simple language can respond to the polysemanticism and richness of associations in Popp’s poems, and critically asked which institutions and initiatives can provide access to poetry that is not solely focused on understanding the content.

What are the differences and similarities between song lyrics and poems? This question was the topic of the second event, which took place at Thalia Theater's Nachtasyl. Poet and musician Lydia Daher reflected on the question from a practical artistic perspective. For instance, she pointed out that song lyrics must be more easily accessible as recipients are not free to choose the speed of reception. She also emphasized the collaborative creation of song lyrics. For literary scholar Fabian Wolbring, the close connection between song lyrics and their performance by certain musicians is an important starting point for thinking about the differences between song lyrics and poems. The panel discussion was dedicated, among other things, to the questions raised by Wolbring about the extent to which the musicality of song lyrics can lead to the uncritical consumption of lyrics and what critical modes of reading and practices of appropriation might look like.

The third debate held at Literaturhaus Hamburg asked about the end (and future) of book poetry. Daniela Seel, poet and head of kookbooks publishing house, addressed issues such as the various crises that printed books are currently facing: the number of available printers is decreasing and are often fully booked, and paper prices have risen sharply. At the same time, volumes of poetry hardly play a role in fields such as journalistic literary criticism anymore. Poet Lütfiye Güzel gave an insight into her self-publishing label, go-güzel-publishing, where she distributes her poetry publications largely independently of publishers and bookshops. For example, she reported that she often simply has the volumes printed by a copy shop, which greatly reduces the delay between production and reception. The joint panel discussion dealt with poetic practices outside the book, the influence of digitalization, and the question of how poets are confronted with self-marketing in the present day.

The fourth and final event at the University of Hamburg was dedicated to popular poetry formats such as slam poetry and Instapoetry. In his presentation, literary scholar Niels Penke showed how new business models have developed in the context of Instapoetry. Paid workshops promise formulas for quick success on the platform, while dubious publishers offer book editions of the texts presented online. For Penke, this touches on an important aspect of Instapoetry: the publication of poems on Instagram is not usually monetized, so the traditional book format, for example, is still necessary to generate income. In his slam poems, David Friedrich presented a critical view of the poetry slam scene. In the text “Den Slam kenne ich schon,” he portrayed slam poetry between humorous escapism and socio-critical text. He illustrated the socio-critical potential of slam poetry with his slam poem “Echt,” which takes a critical look at digitalization. The panel discussion also addressed the advantages and disadvantages of the interactive dimension of these popular formats and reflected on their historical development.

Links to the recordings of the events can be found in the audio and video material section of this website.

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The next Poetry Debates series will take place once more at Universität Hamburg and at other venues around the city in fall 2024. Information will be published in due course on our website.