Lyrik nach der Natur / Poetry after Nature (Poetry Debates IV)
Event series, fall 2024
Curated and hosted by Antje Schmidt in collaboration with Claudia Benthien
“I thawed Greenland with my gaze, / I melted the glaciers as I flew over them full / of devotion. // ich taute Grönland auf mit meinem Blick, / ich schmolz die Gletscher, während ich sie voll / der Andacht überflog.” In these verses, German poet Marion Poschmann relates the dramatic melting of glaciers in the twenty-first century to human activity, in particular to flying by plane. Since entering the Anthropocene, humans have become an all-changing force of nature. With our technologies in particular, we have inscribed ourselves into every corner of the Earth’s biosphere and atmosphere in a way that is as powerful as it is destructive, rendering the supposed boundaries between humans, technologies, and nature increasingly meaningless – and with them, the concept of “nature” itself. At the same time, however, ecological topics in poetry are more relevant than ever, especially in the age of the smoldering climate crisis and the sixth mass extinction. This raises the urgent question: What is the status and purpose of poetry after nature?
In the Poetry Debates IV series, we would like to discuss current poetological, cultural, and social debates on the meaning of poetry after the collapse of conventional ideas of “nature.” What worlds of imagination, poetic devices, and forms of presentation do poems have to make us of in times of sweeping ecological catastrophe? Can poetry create possible futures beyond destructive power relations? What role does Germany’s violent history in particular play in the context of poetic representations of the environment? What roles do science and climate fiction play in the poem? How relevant are queer and postcolonial perspectives in contemporary poetry after nature? We also need to enquire into the changes taking place in the role of the poet: Does poetry have to be activist in times of manmade climate catastrophe in order to make a difference? It is also up for debate whether, within the scope of the posthuman shift, it is necessary to grant agency to nonhuman actants – for example, digital technology, artificial intelligence, animals, and plants. Or is it ultimately impossible to escape the human point of view in the medium of poetry?
Mi., 23. Okt. 2024
Ecology Meets Technology: What Comes After the Poetry of Nature?
Mi., 6. Nov. 2024
Mi., 20. Nov. 2024
Posthuman Authorship: Writing Poems with AI and other Creatures
Mi., 4. Dez. 2024
Poetry for Future: Poetry as Activist Practice
Continue to the program (PDF)