Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Short Talk
Anne Carson (born 1950 in Toronto, Ontario) Speech on Poetry (the title is an allusion to Wallace Steven’s poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Bird) consists of 13 short and abridged lectures. Carson undertakes poetological and philosophical forays into antiquity and her own childhood. Using the example of a fragment of poetry from Sparta in the 7th century BC, she shows how poetry can arise from mistakes and how metaphors teach us to draw pleasure from error. Readers learn about Ovid in his exile, Hegel’s relationship to grammar and the suicide of his sister Christiane, as well as the mythical quality of white bread, the physical condition of emus and the peculiarity of lamas to hum to their offspring as they are raised. Along the way such important questions are answered as: Is it really true that the dead walk backwards? And: At which part of the body could a third arm be placed most conveniently?
The speech will be held in English, the translation is available in German.
The event is for free, but you can donate to support poesiefestival here.