[Commlist] Call for Papers - Audioliterary Poetry between Performance and Mediatization

ERC Project Poetry in the Digital Age

Principle Investigator: Prof. Dr. Claudia Benthien

Conference organizers: Dr. Henrik Wehmeier and Marc Matter, Dipl.

Call for Papers

Audioliterary Poetry between Performance and Mediatization

/ Audioliterale Lyrik zwischen Performance und Mediatisierung

Conference, May 11-13, 2023 / Konferenz, 11.-13.5.2023

Warburg-Haus, Hamburg

The second international and interdisciplinary conference of the ERC 
project Poetry in the Digital Age addresses “Audioliterary Poetry 
between Performance and Mediatization.” The research project is situated 
between literary, cultural, and interart studies. It is developing tools 
to analyze today’s multifaceted poetry formats, ranging from pop culture 
to works of “high” art, by scrutinizing their forms and sites of 
presentation and performance, ranging from the stage to social media, 
from the written page to urban space. Research is divided into three 
areas, focusing on (1) poetry and performance, (2) poetry and music, and 
(3) poetry and visual culture. The first research field, which addresses 
audioliteral forms in performance and mediatization, will be the focus 
of this conference. “Audio-literariness” (Audioliteralität) de-notes 
texts in which written and auditory content is related in such a way 
that its intermedial movement creates meaning (cf. Jäger 2014).

The current popularity of poetry has to do with new forms of poetry 
performance that are often closely connected to processes of 
mediatization: live formats such as spoken word and poetry slam continue 
to attract large audiences, recordings of readings and performances are 
shared on platforms such as YouTube and TikTok, and sound poetry 
experimentally explores the potentials of digital technology. Most 
recently, the Covid-19 pandemic led to manifold attempts to move poetry 
readings and discussions to streaming and communications platforms. 
These developments shed new light on discussions about the relationship 
between “liveness” and “mediatization” (cf. Auslander 2008; 
Fischer-Lichte 2019), examining the role of the (self-)staging of the 
“poet-performer” (Novak 2011); raise questions about the relationship 
between different adaptions of poetic works in different media (cf. 
Benthien 2017; Bernstein 1998; Bers 2021; Jäger 2014); and, finally, 
challenge established definitions of poetry (Müller and Stahl 2021). The 
conference will therefore focus on three interrelated fields: (1) live 
poetry performances, created through the co-presence of audience and 
performer; (2) the mediatization of performed poetry, e.g., recordings 
of events published or posted online; (3) contemporary sound poetry as 
audio-publications and commissioned works for (radio) broadcasts and/or 
studio productions. The spectrum of investigation ranges from 
experimental niche productions to highly eventized, popular forms of poetry.

(1) While the traditional poetry reading has received some critical 
attention recently (Ammon 2018; Mey-er-Kalkus 2020; Utler 2016), there 
is also growing literature being written about new formats such as 
spoken word and poetry slam (Benthien and Prange 2020; English and 
McGowan 2021; Novak 2011). These live formats take on a wide range of 
functions in a mediatized society. For this reason, the conference is 
interested in international and intersectional perspectives on these new 
formats that can illustrate the similarities and differences between 
them (related to aspects such as community building, identity politics 
and authenticity; cf., e.g., Ailes 2021). At the same time, the focus 
will be on inter- and transmedia performances (cf. Pfeiler 2010).

(2) Poetry crosses media boundaries more easily than other literary 
forms (cf. Chasar 2020). Poetry performances are often recorded and 
shared on media platforms (cf. Döring and Passmann 2017). Poets 
themselves use platforms such as Instagram to present their works 
audiovisually, and users also upload poetry performances to platforms 
like TikTok. Technological factors such as interface design and the 
platforms’ editing functions influence the production and the reception 
of these performances. The conference will therefore ask which genres, 
which topics, and which aesthetic devices characterize the poetry 
performances and recordings circulating on social media.

(3) The exploration of new forms of publication also plays an important 
role for sound poetry, which relies on publishing formats outside the 
book. Digitalization is facilitating access to voice recording and 
editing software, which is simultaneously influencing the corporeality 
of voice and speech in recordings(cf. Lentz 2000; Neves 2019; Vorrath 
2020) and leading to the emergence of new formats like digital-born 
audio poetry. The conference wants to investigate which new poetic 
devices and artistic methods are being developed by poets utilizing new 
digital technologies, e.g., editing, cut-ups, sampling, mixing, and 
multi-channel composition (cf. Matter 2016). Among other questions, we 
want to ask how sound poetry reflects today’s medial environment.

We welcome interdisciplinary contributions in German and English that 
investigate the following topics/research fields, which are by no means 
exhaustive or exclusive:

- How do the liveness and mediatization of poetry and spoken word 
performances rely on each other? How can concepts like performativity 
and materiality be adapted to mediatized and digital environments? How 
do poets themselves explore (and subvert) the distinction between live 
and digital formats?

- What new online formats of poetry reading and other forms of 
presentation have emerged (for example, during the Covid-19 pandemic)? 
Are these temporary phenomena or permanent trans-formations of poetry 
culture?

- How are platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok contributing 
to the popularization of performed poetry? What influence do the 
platforms’ policies and algorithms have? What are the functions of 
participatory practices like sharing, liking, and commenting?

- How is the ubiquity of digital technologies transforming fields like 
experimental audio and sound poetry? To what extent is digital 
technology utilized in the production and composition of oral and sound 
poetry works?

- What new forms of publishing and archiving are emerging in these 
fields? Where can we locate digitalization on the spectrum between 
ephemerality and reproducibility?

Please submit your abstract (350 words) together with a short 
bio-bibliography (150 words) to Dr. Henrik Wehmeier 
((henrik.wehmeier /at/ uni-hamburg.de)) and Marc Matter, Dipl., 
((marc.matter /at/ uni-hamburg.de)) by September 15, 2022. Speakers will 
present the selected papers at the conference in a panel format 
(25-minute presentation plus discussion). Travel expenses and 
accommodation will be covered. The pa-pers will be published in a 
peer-reviewed edited volume (as a book and in open access with De 
Gruyter). For further information about the ERC research project Poetry 
in the Digital Age see: 
https://www.poetry-digital-age.uni-hamburg.de/en.html

Bibliography

Ailes, Katie. ““Speak Your Truth”: Authenticity in UK Spoken Word 
Poetry.” Spoken Word in the UK. Ed. by Lucy English and Jack McGowan. 
Abingdon, Oxon, New York, NY: Routledge 2021. 142–153.

Ammon, Frieder von. Fülle des Lauts: Aufführung und Musik in der 
deutschsprachigen Lyrik seit 1945: das Werk Ernst Jandls in seinen 
Kontexten. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler Verlag, 2018.

Auslander, Philip. Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture. 
London: Routledge, 2008.

Benthien, Claudia. “Visuelle Polyphonie. Cia Rinnes archives zaroum als 
mediale Transformation konkreter Poesie.” Übersetzen und Rahmen: 
Praktiken Medialer Transformationen: Praktiken Medialer 
Transformationen. Ed. by Claudia Benthien and Gabriele Klein. Paderborn: 
Fink 2017. 123–139.

Benthien, Claudia and Catrin Prange. “Spoken-Word-Literatur und Poetry 
Slam.” Handbuch Literatur & Audiokultur. Ed. by Natalie Binczek and Uwe 
Wirth. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter 2020. 517–533.

Bernstein, Charles, ed. Close listening: Poetry and the Performed Word. 
New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Bers, Anna. “Ein spannungsreicher Normalfall: Lyrik-Performance und 
Schrifttextgedicht als verschiedene Aggre-gatszustände.” Internationale 
Zeitschrift für Kulturkomparatistik 2 (2021): 145–169.

Chasar, Mike. Poetry Unbound: Poems and New Media from the Magic Lantern 
to Instagram. New York: Columbia University Press, 2020.

Döring, Jörg and Johannes Passmann. “Lyrik auf YouTube. Clemens J. Setz 
liest "Die Nordsee" (2014).” Zeitschrift für Germanistik 27.2 (2017): 
329–247.

English, Lucy, and Jack McGowan, eds. Spoken Word in the UK. Abingdon, 
Oxon, New York, NY: Routledge, 2021.

Fischer-Lichte, Erika. Ästhetik des Performativen. Frankfurt am Main: 
Suhrkamp, 2019.

Jäger, Ludwig. “Audioliteralität: Eine Skizze zur Transkriptivität des 
Hörbuchs.” Das Hörbuch: Praktiken Audioliteralen Schreibens und 
Verstehens: Praktiken Audioliteralen Schreibens und Verstehens. Ed. by 
Natalie Binczek and Cornelia Epping-Jäger. Boston: BRILL 2014. 231–253.

Lentz, Michael. Lautpoesie/-musik nach 1945. Eine 
kritisch-dokumentarische Bestandsaufnahme. Wien: Edition Selene, 2000.

Matter, Marc. “Konzeptuelle Akustische Literatur und Sample-Poesie. Ein 
Desiderat.” Code und Konzept. Literatur und das Digitale. Ed. Hannes 
Bajohr. Berlin: Frohmann Verlag 2016. 88–99.

Meyer-Kalkus, Reinhart. Geschichte der Literarischen Vortragskunst. 
Berlin: J. B. Metzler, 2020.

Müller, Ralph, and Henrieke Stahl. “Contemporary Lyric Poetry in 
Transitions between Genres and Media.” Interna-tionale Zeitschrift für 
Kulturkomparatistik 2 (2021): 5–24.

Neves, Miguel Nuno. Vox Ex Machina: Poesia sonora no século XXI. 
Coimbra: Universidade de Coimbra, 2019.

Novak, Julia. Live Poetry: An Integrated Approach to Poetry in 
Performance. New York: BRILL, 2011.

Pfeiler, Martina. Poetry Goes Intermedia: US-amerikanische Lyrik des 20. 
und 21. Jahrhunderts aus kultur- und medienwissenschaftlicher 
Perspektive. Tübingen: A. Francke Verlag, 2010.

Utler, Anja. "Manchmal sehr mitreißend": Über die poetische Erfahrung 
gesprochener Gedichte. s.l.: transcript Verlag, 2016.

Vorrath, Wiebke. Hörlyrik der Gegenwart. Würzburg: Königshausen und 
Neumann, 2020.


ERC-Forschungsprojekt "Poetry in the Digital Age"

Universität Hamburg, Institut für Germanistik

Überseering 35, Postfach #15

22297 Hamburg

Email: (poetry-digital-age /at/ uni-hamburg.de) 
<mailto:(poetry-digital-age /at/ uni-hamburg.de)>


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