Playing With Witches. Karen Blixen's Generous Tales. In Conversation with Ieva Steponavičiūtė-Aleksiejūnienė

Ieva Steponavičiūtė-Aleksiejūnienė, Vilnius University, invites nordlitt to workshop around the concept of play in two stories by Danish author Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen. Ieva muses with Blixen on why art cannot make us happy, and we uncover creative connections between artistic processes, superficiality, and cannibalism. Blixen also guides us toward a new, gender-crossing take on theories of creative misreading. Moreover, we encounter a family history entangled with the history of Scandinavian Studies in the Soviet Union and Lithuania, and we learn about the significance of Denmark for post-communist Lithuanian scholars. Finally, Ieva encourages us to listen to the text and emphasizes the importance of intellectual exchange beyond national and political borders. Timestamps: (00:00:00) Introducing Ieva Steponavičiūtė Aleksiejūnienė(00:01:56) Life Patterns and Scandinavian Studies in Lithuania  (00:13:40) Georg Brandes Skolen(00:20:52) Introducing Karen Blixen(00:31:38) Looking at Blixen through Play(00:41:43) Workshop: Recurring Images and Characters in “Echoes”(00:48:06) Metafiction, Art and Life(00:51:34) Resurrection and Cannibalism (00:58:54) Is Blixen difficult?(01:03:48) The Playful Vampire-Artist(01:11:29) Theories of Influence(01:16:08) Navigating through “Tempests”(01:23:27) Art Cannot Make People Happy(01:34:23) The Tension between Symbol and Allegory(01:39:54) Art and Transcendence(01:42:57) The Shipwreck Versus the Floating Ship(01:46:00) Other Research Interests: Scandinavia, Lithuania and Beyond(01:54:00) Advice to Student-SelfBibliography, further information, and comments are available on Experiment Geisteswissenschaften.https://exgeist.hypotheses.org/category/nordlittIdeas and conception: Stefanie von SchnurbeinCut: Cecilia Falkman