In line with the work that the Margarida Losa Comparative Literature Institute has been doing in recent years on the topic at hand, in April 2021 we started a series of online conversations titled “Poets talk Politics” began, in which poetry experts (from the ILCML and other universities) chat with a poet about the ways in which his/her work converses with the contemporary ideological milieu, negotiates the relationship between aesthetics and citizenship, and uses literary methods to produce political thought.

This session will feature PhD students Ana Cunha (ILCML) and Lizzie Smith (University of Warwick). We will discuss the new book by conceptual poet Robert Fitterman, which consists of a rewriting of William Carlos Williams’ important epic poem, Paterson, in light of issues affecting contemporary American society, such as deindustrialization and the alienation caused by the internet. The session is held online and broadcast via streaming on Facebook.

Org. João Paulo Guimarães

Remember previous sessions HERE