| Abstract |

In spring 2020, the sudden appearance of a poem, rendered in large, white characters on the ground near Ōmiya station, sparked a buzz on Twitter and stirred irritation among local residents. Only a few months later, poet Saihate Tahi revealed that she was responsible for the poem, stating that it was a site-specific commissioned work for the 2020 Saitama Triennale entitled Shi no kasoku (‘The Acceleration of poetry’). However, with the Triennale postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the installation emerged without its institutional context, transforming the everyday space of a regular street into something Edward Soja calls a ‘Thirdspace’ or ‘an-Other.’

Drawing on spatial theories by Soja, Henri Lefebvre, Maeda Ai, and others, alongside insights from cognitive literary studies, this presentation examines the implications of encountering poetry within real and virtual urban spaces. Focusing on the reader reception and considering how readers must physically (or virtually) navigate these spaces to engage with the poetry, this presentation seeks to understand the dynamic relationship between readers, poetry, and space, arguing that these encounters not only shape our interpretation of the poems but also influence our perception of the surrounding spaces.

| Bio |

Sarah Puetzer is a DPhil candidate at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on contemporary Japanese literature and poetry, with a particular interest in exploring the concept of 'poetic spaces' in the works of poets Saihate Tahi, Mizusawa Nao, and Fuzuki Yumi among others. She has pursued her studies in Oxford, Berlin, and Tsukuba, Japan. From May to September 2023, she was granted a scholarship by the German Institute of Japanese Studies in Tokyo to conduct fieldwork on Saihate Tahi’s poetry exhibition Shi wo ippuku.

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | s08e04
Thursday 2024-04-18, 18:00~19:30

| Place & Preparations | 

| Plattform & Link |

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at or visit https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/s08/#e05.