Space and the Experimental Work of Saihate Tahi
Among the new generation of Japanese women writers, poet and writer Saihate Tahi’s productivity seems to be unusually high. She is constantly publishing new collections of poetry, novels, short stories and essays, and is also actively publishing new work on social media. Recently, she seems to be experimenting with non-traditional ways of publishing her work, challenging our usual notions of what can be considered ‘literature’ or ‘poetry’. In this session of the OCCT Discussion Group, Sarah Puetzer will introduce and analyse Tahi’s more experimental work through the lens of ‘space’, reaching from her video game poetry series shiku hakku (‘Poetry Hacks’) to her poetry installation Shi no kasoku / Shi no teishi (‘The Acceleration of Poetry / The Suspension of Poetry’) as well as her photographic short story Kimi wa POP (‘You are POP’). I will consider how digital or physical space and poetry intertwine in her works and discuss in what ways these ‘poetic spaces’ can be translated and thus experienced by an audience outside Japan. For more information, please visit: www.occt.ox.ac.uk/discussion-group-space-and-experimental-work-saihate-tahi.

Sarah Puetzer is a DPhil student at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford. She specialises in contemporary Japanese literature and poetry, with a focus on ‘poetic spaces’ in the works of Saihate Tahi and Fuzuki Yumi among others. She studied in Oxford, Berlin and Japan and just recently graduated from the IUC 10-month programme of intensive academic and professional Japanese training in Yokohama, administered by Stanford University. She is also co-host of the German cultural podcast and blog foejetong, discussing (pop) cultural phenomena from a feminist perspective.
Date: 14 November 2022, 12:45 (Monday, 6th week, Michaelmas 2022)
Venue: St Anne's College, Woodstock Road OX2 6HS
Venue Details: Seminar Room 10
Speaker: Sarah Puetzer (University of Oxford)
Organising department: Faculty of English Language and Literature
Organiser: Erin Nickalls
Organiser contact email address: erin.nickalls@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk
Part of: Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Public
Editor: Hope Lukonyomoi-Otunnu