Conference Examines the Role of Tartu and Riga in Literature
On 9 and 10 May at 9.30 a.m. a literature conference „Tartu and Riga in Literature“ takes place in the German Philology Department of the University of Tartu, at Ülikooli 17, room 225, which shall examine the role of Tartu and Riga in Livonia and the mentioning of the two cities in literature.
For centuries, Tartu and Riga have been cultural centres in the Baltic region which, after being conquered in the late Middle Ages by Germany and Denmark and then Poland and Sweden, ended up as part of Czarist Russia. As a result of the development of nations, statehood and the related new borders in the Baltic States, the former connections receded into the background. Lately, the humanitarians of Estonia and Latvia have started to take more interest in what is beyond the national borders. At the same time, researchers in Germanistics, in comparative literature, to be more exact, have become interested in the historical interference rooms of the Eastern Europe where the German language and culture played a significant role for a long period of time.
At the conference, the role of these two cities in Livonia will be emphasised, and it will be asked how these cities have been reflected in literature. The following topics shall be discussed at the conference: Tartu and Riga in the mirror of literature; the effect of literary imaginations on Tartu and Riga as places of historical memory; the effect of multilingualism and cultural interference.
German, Estonian, Latvian and Slavic classical philologists from Göttingen, Tartu and Riga will participate in the conference.
The conference shall commence on 9 May at 9.30 a.m. at the Institute of German Roman and Slavic Philology, at Ülikooli 17, room 225.
See the conference programme. The conference shall be part of the programme of Saksa kevad (German Spring).
Everyone is welcome to participate.
For more information: Reet Bender, Lecturer of German Philology, phone 737 6240, email: reet [dot] bender [ät] ut [dot] ee.