Liter[r]a [eng]

In Latin, the word litera refers to both a graphic symbol and the entire body of literary works. Literature is an important and special form of culture – both dialogic and self-reflective. This unique quality manifests on an individual, social, intercultural and geopolitical levels. Hence the significance of efforts to ensure mutual cross-fertilisation of literatures from different linguistic areas and intensive circulation of literary works on a global scale. Liter[r]a is our expression of care and efforts to promote Polish literary works abroad and support people who are able to take on literary translation challenges: linguistic, cultural, artistic, social and political.

In a world where communication increasingly assumes the form of slogans and memes, literature provides us with a unique opportunity to understand ourselves and each other to the fullest, also across borders. The Liter[r]a series of translation workshops and author meetings consists of eight events devoted to contemporary Polish literature, organised in four most important cultural and academic centres in Europe: Paris, Berlin, Madrid and Amsterdam.

The dialogic dimension of literature is reflected in the very formula of Liter[r]a events, where we host the co-creators of the intercultural literary dialogue, i.e. authors and translators of their works. During specialist translation workshops, their dialogue will be shared with university students of the Polish language and culture, translation trainees and people keen to explore such professional opportunity. The evening meetings with authors, which are open to a wider audience of experts curators, academics, media and, above all, the community of readers, provide space for an in-depth discussion of the vital role of literary translation as a form of co-creation of contemporary literary texts, as well as the reception and the dialogic potential of Polish literature in individual countries and language areas.

The Liter[r]a series is an initiative of the Olga Tokarczuk Foundation, implemented in cooperation with foreign partners, with the financial support of the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage within the Promotion of Polish Culture Abroad programme for 2025.

On 26 March 2025 in Paris, at the Sorbonne, we organized the translation masterclass co-led by Mikołaj Grynberg and Margot Carlier, based on the French translation of Rejwach (Je voudrais leur demander pardon, mais ils ne sont plus là, published by Actes Sud, 2023). Students and scholars at the Polish language and literature department had the opportunity to learn about the practicalities and nuances of the translation project on Grynberg’s collection of several dozen texts that constitute a poignant, multi-layered story about Jewish and Polish experience in the context of the second and third generations after the Holocaust. During the masterclass, the author and the translator highlighted the significance of the fact that these ‘small, penetrating prose pieces’, in addition to their purely literary value, also adress significant cultural and identity aspects that are salient in contemporary Poland. The masterclass was attended by 21 participants, and was organised with the invaluable support of Sorbonne lecturers, Professor Małgorzata Smorąg-Goldberg and Patrick Rozborski. The Olga Tokarczuk Foundation team was also present to record the entire workshop for further educational purposes. We also recorded the evening meeting with the writer and the translator, held in La Librairie polonaise de Paris, attended by more than 90 readers and moderated by Oriane Jeancourt Galignani, the editor of Transfuge magazine. The meeting was kindly and generously hosted by the Polish Library’s director, Ms Katarzyna Maciejewska and her staff.