European Literature Festival 2022

1-1

How do we restore our trust in politics and what does it take to save democracy in this capitalist world? Two prominent thinkers, both of the same generation, will discuss how to fight the ever-growing cynicism present in our society.

2-1

Mika Waltari's The Egyptian (Sinuhe egyptiläinen, 1945) is one of the best-known and best-loved of all Finnish novels, and has been translated into 41 languages. Takako Servo is currently translating the novel into Japanese for the first time directly from Finnish and in its entirety, to be published by Mizuiro Books in 2023. In this session she will discuss how she came to take up this project, the ins and outs of the ongoing translation process, and the challenges she faces due to the differences between the Finnish and Japanese languages.

2-2

A presentation of the Japanese version of Quarks, Elephants & Pierogi: Poland in 100 Words by the translator.

2-3

Two scholars – an Italian specialising in cinema and a Japanese specialising in literature – join forces to tackle two aspects which until now have rarely been considered together in Japan: Pasolini as a film-maker and as a writer. In the 1960s, after making his debut with the film Accattone, Pasolini dealt with "linguistic issues" in increasing depth (note his well-known 1964 essay on the Italian language Nuove questioni linguistiche), having always experimented with a variety of literary registers in a macaronic way. He felt that issues of language constantly occur in cinema and literature, since in his theoretical writings, cinema is defined as the "written language of reality".

2-4

In the Jungle With Baťa is a novel about the life in exile of the entrepreneur Jan Antonín Baťa, who not only founded the Czech shoe manufacturer Baťa, but also played a major role in turning the company into a global business phenomenon. Baťa built a modern factory in Zlín and had become a success, but was then forced to suspend production when the region was invaded by Nazi Germany. Forced into exile, he decided to go to Brazil. In the Jungle With Baťa portrays the life of a man who lived on two continents seen through the eyes of three generations: Baťa himself, his daughter, and his grandchild. In this session, the author and translator discuss not only the book itself, but the literary achievements and the charm of people living in diverse cultural environments, across continents.

2-5

Maylis Besserie, winner of the prestigious Goncourt Prize for Best First Novel with Le Tiers Temps, an account of the final days of Samuel Beckett, discusses her book, Beckett and French literature, and the process of writing exofiction – writing that takes inspiration from real-life events.

※ Held in collaboration with "Feuilles d'automne 2022" (Institut français du Japon)

3-1

An event for children introducing Bulgarian folk tales and featuring a reading from the children’s book The Water of Life.

※This event is an introduction to Bulgarian children's literature in Japanese. For details, please address inquiries to the Bulgarian Embassy (03-3465-1021).

3-2

Merging art and science in novel book formats – why?
After introducing the vision for their collaboration, the collaborators present the Finn Foton children's book series, with a special focus on the first book Finn Foton and the quantum physics, and explain how the books have become a key reference tool in events for children in both Denmark and Japan. They will then discuss how the interplay between art and science has been explored in graphic novels targeting young and adult audiences. In particular, they will introduce the thoughts and ideas behind the book Lost Summer, which is an interpretation of the iconic Bohr-Einstein dialogue on quantum mechanics.

3-3

Markéta Pilátová discusses her works for children, including various Japanese influences, and the Czech tradition of writing books for children.

3-4

Despite having a relatively small population, Sweden has turned out a large number of internationally recognised writers of children's literature. Experts discuss questions such as: what elements make an attractive children's book? and what challenges are there for bringing foreign children's literature to the Japanese market?

4-1

In his presentation, Tomáš Forró will discuss not only a new war but also its interpretation in literature and art. He has documented not only global events, but also the lives of ordinary people who had become victims of the conflict. He will also read some extracts from his book Donbass.

※ Speaker will participate virtually (online)

4-2

Japanese culture has always been closely linked to nature, from Zen Buddhism and Shintoism to artistic expressions such as haiku or Kurosawa's cinematography. Nowadays, the Western world is alive and brimming with naturalist literature. Ecology and ecosophy are together becoming a new trend, but have their roots in a much older tradition. The Romantic artists were the first to "discover" nature in the West, with American transcendentalists such as Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman following their path. In architecture, Antoni Gaudi and Frank Lloyd Wright found inspiration in nature. From there, the Beat Generation and the counterculture of the 1960s ｂrought ecology into the mainstream so that it comes back to us today. Let's discover this legacy and learn about the new naturalism in the West.

※ Speaker will participate virtually (online)

4-3

A discussion on the future of translated literature in Japan with leading translators and publishers of "foreign literature" from EU countries.

5-1

A discussion about Estonia seen from a historical perspective by Hajime Kitaoka, former Japanese ambassador to Estonia and translator of A Bird’s-Eye View of Estonian History written by Mart Laar, historian and former Prime Minister of Estonia.

5-2

A discussion about Hungarian poets and war, focusing on three poets who each lost their life in a war: Petőfi Sándor (war of independence from the Austrian Empire), Ady Endre (WWI), and Radnóti Miklós (WWII).

5-3

The war in Cyprus and the country's continued division have made many Cypriots to feel fragmented and incomplete in both their personal lives and their cultural identity. Poetry and literature have responded to the situation, reuniting so-called "separated" literary traditions, connecting even different languages and scripts to one other. In this session, Mehmet Yashin will discuss his poetry collections, novels, and other literary works, which he considers the results of the common experiences in a forcefully divided Cyprus. He will also touch upon relevant examples in poetry and literature in the thousand year long shared cultural heritage between the Greek and Turkish-speaking regions of Cyprus.

5-4

Poets from Ireland and Cyprus and Japanese experts in Hungarian and Greek literature join to share their views on War and Poetry.

5-5

This session will be dedicated to the unexpected and multifaceted ways in which Greek and Japanese poetry meet. Based on the authorial work, in Greek and Japanese, of poet and translator Harry Ioseph, the discussion will focus on the Greek appreciation of haiku. Professor Fukuda will further comment on the interrelation and connection between Greek and Japanese literary landscapes, authors, and genres, and give, together with Harry Ioseph, some interesting insight on issues surrounding translation from and to both languages.

5-6

Paula Meehan, a poet from Ireland, and José Luís Peixoto, an author from Portugal, will talk about their works which have been recently published in Japan. Meehan will read some poems from As If By Magic, followed by Japanese versions read by the translators. Peixoto, whose first novel Blank Gaze was recently translated into Japanese, will talk with the translator of Galveias, a previously translated book of his.

6-1

Part 1 (Germany): She came from Mariupol – Reading and Talk with Natascha Wodin
Part 2 (Austria): It All Started with Ilse Aichinger - On the 100th Birthyear-Anniversary

6-2

This year marks the centenary of the births of Jonas Mekas (Lithuania) and José Saramago (Portugal), as well as 100 years since the publication of James Joyce's ground-breaking novel Ulysses (Ireland). Taking this opportunity to mark these luminaries of European literature, artists and experts from each country will talk about the respective authors and their works.

ヨーロッパ文学の100年

DAY1

Opening session: dialogue Rutger Bregman and Kohei Saito

DAY2

Translating Mika Waltari's The Egyptian

Quarks, Elephants & Pierogi: Poland in 100 Words

Pasolini from cinema to literature: new linguistic issues

Czech shoemakers in the Brazilian jungle

Le Tiers Temps, with Maylis Besserie

DAY3

The wonderful world of Bulgarian folk tales

Art and science - finn foton og kvantefysikken (Finn Foton and Quantum Physics) and TABTE SOMRE (Lost Summer)

Origami language with the flavor of magic mushrooms

Storytelling for children - how to overcome culture and market differences when working internationally

DAY4

War in Ukraine

Nature, ZEN & Western art (From Gaudi to the beat generation and modern literature)

Words go further: present and future of translated literature in Japan

DAY5

A Small Nation's History Defying Great Powers: Where does Estonia's power come from?

Hungarian poets and War

Writing from Cyprus: Poetry and Literature Unite What War and Conflict Divide

Panel discussion: War and Poetry

The Greek connection: Relating Greek to Japanese poetry

Echoes from Europe's Western shores

DAY6

Writing from Germany and Austria

100 years of European Literature