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Professor Marko Pajević

Professor for German Studies at the University of Tartu, Estonia Associate Visiting Fellow, Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations

Email: marko.pajevic@ut.ee
Website: https://www.ut.ee/en/marko-pajevic?language=en

Profile

Marko Pajević is Professor for German Studies at the University of Tartu, Estonia (the professorship is funded by the EU European Regional Development Fund), after positions at the Sorbonne, Queen’s University Belfast, Royal Holloway, and Queen Mary, University of London. He teaches literature, film and cultural history.

His research interests are related to the questions of the literary and the human and he has developed a poetological anthropology around the notion of poetic thinking (see the website apt.ut.ee). He published monographs on Paul Celan, Franz Kafka and poetic thinking, and edited volumes on poetics after 1945 and on the relation between poetry and musicality, as well as numerous articles on poetics. He defines poetics with Henri Meschonnic as the interaction of the form of language and the form of life. In recent years he focused on translation theory and on ‘thinking language’ (Sprachdenken) and published two special issues on the language theory of Wilhelm von Humboldt and of Henri Meschonnic, both financed by the British Academy. A Meschonnic Reader will appear in 2019 (Edinburgh UP) and a co-edited Paul Celan Companion in 2020 (de Gruyter). As an Associate Visiting fellow of the CAGCR, is also working on projects on multilingualism in connection to literature and the political.

Research

Publications

SOLE-AUTHORED BOOKS

  • Poetisches Denken und die Frage nach dem Menschen. Grundzüge einer poetologischen Anthropologie, Karl Alber Verlag, Reihe Dia-Logik, Freiburg i.Br., 2012 (358 pp.)

reviewed in: Austrian Studies 21, 2014; Journal of Austrian Studies 47/1, Spring 2014; Aufgang. Jahrbuch für Denken, Dichten, Musik, 11, 2014, Études Germaniques 69, 2014/1

  • Kafka lesen. Acht Textanalysen, Bernstein-Verlag, Bonn, 2009 (106 pp.)

reviewed in: The Modern Language Review 105.3, 2010; Germanistik in Ireland 2010/5

  • Zur Poetik Paul Celans: Gedicht und Mensch – Die Arbeit am Sinn, Beiträge zur neueren Literaturgeschichte, Band 177, Universitätsverlag C. Winter, Heidelberg, 2000 (310 pp.)

reviewed in: arcadia 36, 2001/1; Arbitrium 2001/2, Literary Research/ Recherche Littéraire 19, 2002/37-38; The Modern Language Review 98.1, 2003; Germanistik 44, 2003/3-4; Austriaca 58, 2004)

 

EDITED BOOKS AND SPECIAL ISSUES

  • forthcoming: Celan Today. A Compagnon, Series Companions to Contemporary German Culture, de Gruyter, Berlin/NY, 2020, Co-editor with Karen Leeder und Michael Eskin, chapter (~350 p.)
  • forthcoming: The Meschonnic-Reader, translated from French, Edinburgh UP, 2019, editor, co-translator, substantial introduction and apparatus (~450 p.)
  • Thinking Language with Henri Meschonnic, Special Issue of Comparative Critical Studies, 15/3, Oct 2018, co-editor with David Nowell Smith, chapter and introduction (120S.)
  • Thinking Language. Wilhelm von Humboldt Now, co-editor with David Nowell Smith, chapter and introduction, Special Issue of Forum for Modern Language Studies, Oxford UP, 53/1, Jan 2017
  • German and European Poetics after the Holocaust. Crisis and Creativity, Camden House, Rochester, 2011, co-editor with G. Hofmann, R. MagShamrain, M. Shields, chapter and introduction (310 pp.)
  • reviewed in: Colloquia Germanica, 2010, 43/4; The German Quarterly, Spring 2012, 85/2; Choice. Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, May 2012; Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 2012, 12/2; Journal of European Studies, June 2012, 42/2; Journal of Austrian Studies, 2012, 45:3-4; Forum for Modern Languages Studies 48, 2012/4; German Studies Review 36, 2013/1; The Modern Language Review 109.1, Jan 2014
  • Poésie et musicalité. Liens, croisements, mutations, Harmattan, collection ‘Les mondes germaniques’, 2007, editor, historical introduction and chapter (159 pp.)

 

ARTICLES IN PEER-REVIEWED JOURNALS

  • ‘La production de la réalité – des événements, des images et du langage’, in Synergies Pays Riverains de la Baltique, no 13, juin 2019
  • ‘Introduction: Thinking Language with Henri Meschonnic’ and ‘A Poetics of Society: Thinking Language with Henri Meschonnic’, In Thinking Language with Henri Meschonnic, ed. by Marko Pajević and David Nowell Smith, Special Issue of Comparative Critical Studies, 15/3, Oct 2018, 279-290 and 291-310
  • ‘Humboldt’s Thinking Language: Poetics and Politics’, and ‘Thinking Language. Wilhelm von Humboldt Now. Introduction’, in Thinking Language. Wilhelm von Humboldt Now, ed. by Marko Pajević and David Nowell Smith, Special Issue of Forum for Modern Language Studies, 53/1, Jan 2017, 95-107 and 1-6
  • ‘Pour une pensée poétique de la traduction, avec Henri Meschonnic et Wilhelm von Humboldt’in Skené. Rivista di letteratura francese e italiana contemporanee, 2016/6, 57-64
  • ‘Zurückgeworfensein. Spiegelungen von Krankheit und Literatur im Werk W.G. Sebalds’ in Recherches Germaniques, 45, Dec 2015, 95-120
  • ‘Brand’s Haide - Arno Schmidt’s Romantic Realism’ in Anuari di Filologia. Literatures Contemporànies, 2015/5, 49-68
  • ‘German Language and National Socialism Today: Still a German “Sonderweg”?’ in Edinburgh German Yearbook 8, 2014, 7-24
  • ‘Translation and Poetic Thinking’ in German Life and Letters, 67/1, 2014, 6-21
  • ‘Theory of Language (Humboldt / Trabant) and its Anthropological Consequences’, in Forum for Modern Language Studies (FMLS), Vol. 50/1, 2014, 97-112
  • ‘Meschonnic et Celan – quel enjeu ?’ in Europe, Revue littéraire mensuelle, n°995, mars 2012, 156-166
  •  ‘Beyond the Sign. Henri Meschonnic’s Poetics of Rhythm and Continuum. Towards an Anthropological Theory of Language’, in Forum for Modern Language Studies (FMLS), Vol. 47, n°3, 2011, 304-318
  • ‘Zur Korrespondenz Ingeborg Bachmann / Paul Celan – ‚exemplarisch‘? Der lebensschriftliche Anspruch der Dichtung’, in Weimarer Beiträge, 4/2010, 519-543 
  • ‘L’abîme en moi : Franz Kafka et le dilemme de l’être’, in Europe. Revue littéraire mensuelle, n°923, mars 2006, 194-208
  • ‘L’Origine. Une lecture du poème RADIX, MATRIX de Paul Celan’, in Littérature et Nation, N° XX, éd. Bernard Banoun / Jessica Wilker : Paul Celan. Traduction, réception, interprétation, 2006, 183-204
  • ‘Verwirklichende Räume – Poetik und Raumkonzeption bei Paul Celan und Martin Buber’, in Austriaca, n° 60, juin 2005, 69-82
  • ‘Die Ungewißheit der Natur. Zur Dichtung Michael Donhausers und Hans-Ulrich Treichels’, in Études Germaniques, 1/2003, éd. Jean-Marie Valentin, 73-91
  • ‘The ‘stance’ in the poetics of Paul Celan’, in German Life and Letters, Volume LIV n°4, Oct. 2001, 345-352
  • ‘Die Konzentration. Zur Bewegung des dichterischen Sprechens in der Poetik Paul Celans’, in Weimarer Beiträge, Heft 2/2001, 213-221
  • ‘Vom Innen und vom Außen. Zum Raum in der Poetik Paul Celans’, in SAXA. Bogengebete – In der Luft. Kommentare zu zwei Gedichten aus Celans Die Niemandsrose, A 23/24, 2001, 37-64
  • ‘Le poème comme « écriture de vie »’, in Europe. Revue littéraire mensuelle, n°861-2, 2001, 151-165
  • ‘Le travail du sens de l’Homme. La poétique de Paul Celan’, in PO&SIE, n°94, 4ème trimestre 2000, 111-19
  • ‘Les voix et Paul Celan’, in Études Germaniques, 3/2000, 577-593
  • ‘La concentration. Le mouvement du discours poétique dans le poème EIN WURFHOLZ de Paul Celan’, in Études Germaniques, 4/1999, 606-617                      
  • ‘Erfahrungen, Orte, Aufenthalte und die Sorge um das Selbst’, in arcadia, Bd. 32/1, 1997, 148-161

 

TRANSLATIONS

  • Forthcoming: Markus Messling, Champollion’s Hieroglyphs. Philology and Appropriation of the World, (from German to English)
  • Georges Didi-Hubermann, ‘Seine Rückfaltungen ausstellen’, (from French to German)
  • Marc Groenen, ‘Malen in einer Höhle im Jungpaläolithikum: das Beispiel von La Pasiega (Kantabrien, Spanien)’, (from French to German)
  • Yacouba Konaté, ‘Die andere Malerei: Die Malerei des Anderen’, (from French to German) in Kulturtechnik Malen. Die Welt aus Farbe erschaffen - Zur Grundlegung graphischer und figurativer Operationen, eds. Meret Kupczyk, Ludger Schwarte, Charlotte Warsen, Paderborn: Fink 2019
  • Roberto M. Dainotto, ‘Europa (in der Theorie)’, (from English to German) in Fluchtpunkte. Das Mittelmeer und die europäische Krise, ed. Markus Messling, Kulturverlag Kadmos, Berlin, 2017, 36-69
  • various texts by Rudolf von Laban, (from German to English) on the website of the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, Special Collections, John Hodgson: Laban, 2016
  • Valentin Tomberg, Pour une philosophie du droit international, Editions du Cygne, Paris, 2015, in collaboration with François Morvan (254 p.) (from German to French)
  • Daniel Pozner, poems and poetic prose text, plus interview, (from French to German) in Eisler-Mitteilungen 55, 20/April 2013, 5, 16-17, 26-27
  • Patrick Beurard-Valdoye, ‘Der Asconaut im Atelier der Natur’, (from French to German)
  • in Art is / is Arp, Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, ed. Oliver Kornhoff, 2009, I-XI
  • Patrick Beurard-Valdoye, ‘Kurt Schwitters’ Zwillinge’, (from French to German) in Merzgebiete. Kurt Schwitters und seine Freunde, Hg. Karin Orchard / Isabel Schulz, Sprengel Museum Hannover, Dumont, 2006, 196-204
  • weekly translation of a specialised article for the internet automobile magazine ‘Classicdriver’, June 2004 - March 2005 (from German to French)
  • Patrick Beurard-Valdoye, ‘Helmas Monolog am 8. Oktober’, (from French to German) read 8 Octobre 2004 at the Institut Français de Copenhague
  • Patrick Beurard-Valdoye, ‘Stuttgart’, poem, (from French to German) in Almanach Stuttgarter Schriftstellerhaus 5, ed. U. Pfaffinger, Edition Peter Schlack, Stuttgart, 2003, 56-7
  • Kafka / Restes, homo homini lupus, Paris, 2003, (from German to French) Translation of fragments by Franz Kafka, in collaboration with Julian Mereuta and Viorel Mereutza
  • Eight poems by Bruno Ciolfi, (from French to German) in: Akzente 5 / 2001, 456-459
  • Patrick Beurard-Valdoy, ‘Luciles Meridian’, (from French to German) in und lächelnd ins aufatmen nimmt dich mit der delphin. in memoriam Johannes Poethen, Hg. U. Pfaffinger, Ithaka Verlag, Stuttgart, 2001, 53-64
  • Poems by Heinz Czechowski, Ulrike Draesner, Durs Grünbein, Thomas Kling, (from German to French) in poésie 2001, n°86/ février, 108-114

 

REVIEWS

  • NUMEROUS REVIEWS FOR:
  • Modern Language Review
  • Forum for Modern Language Studies
  • Études Germaniques
  • Monatshefte
  • Austrian Studies
  • Esprit, Revue Internationale
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