Going back to a place not visited for twenty years

Joseph Brodsky last met with Polish readers in 1993. Twenty years later, on the anniversary of him receiving the degree honoris causa at the University of Silesia in Katowice, we would like to invite you to Krakow, where students of Jagiellonian University have created the literary and academic Brodsky Project, as part of which an international interdisciplinary academic conference, Going back to a place not visited for twenty years – Joseph Brodsky’s returns from history, will take place between the 6^th and the 8^th of December at the lecture theatre of Collegium Novum of Jagiellonian University. Scholars researching the Nobel Prize winner’s works from Poland and abroad – St. Petersburg State University, the University of Helsinki, and Yale University, among others – will take part in the conference. The central theme of the project is a journey, constituting – one may say – a metaphor of Brodsky’s fate. His poetic path led through Russia, Italy, the US, and Poland: it was in Polish translation that Brodsky could read world literature, unavailable in the USSR. And literature became a gateway to the world of aesthetics and ethics.

We believe that the Brodsky Project will constitute a valuable contribution to the annual programme of literary events in Krakow. We encourage you to become familiar with the programme, which is available at: www.projektbrodski.pl.