The process of mediatization makes poetry conscious of its relation to media. This development has opened a field of possibilities – the integration and distribution of words with sound and image outside of the book, the dissemination of words into the rapid networks of a digital public space – and in addition it creates new sensibilities – affects, atmospheres, materialities – that reflect back on the written word and the book and conjures new directions for reading and writing book-poetry, including new takes on the history and the concept of poetry.

This conference intends to explore the state of the art of poetry within these contemporary mediatic distributions of the sensible. Where do the words go when they leave the page? How do word, sound and image interact in poetry today, and how does this differ from the long tradition of comparing the arts? To what extent is the study of genre (and with it the idea of poetry) affected by theses changes? What are the connections between the above-mentioned new range of sensibilities and poetry, media and culture? And, finally, what are the consequences for the way we analyze poetry and deal with its history?

Confirmed keynote speakers

• Yoko Tawada
• Virginia Jackson
• Claudia Benthien