Shedding light on the abyss: perspectives from German and Baltic cultural history

On 26 August at 16:00, the co-edited volume "Der Abgrund in deutscher und baltischer Kultur / The Abyss in German and Baltic Culture" will be presented at the University of Tartu Philosophicum, Jakobi 2, room 336. The book is edited by Marco Pajević and Jaanus Sooväli.

The notion of the abyss is crucial in cultural history, yet it has remained little-studied. It plays a particularly significant role in the German history of ideas. This volume brings together twelve chapters and a substantial introduction, exploring the abyss in German and Baltic cultures, in literature, as well as in theatre and digital games. The collection is edited by Marco Pajević, Visiting Professor of Poetic Thinking at the University of Tartu, and Jaanus Sooväli, Research Fellow in Intellectual History, with contributions from several other scholars of the university.

Recently published volume by De Gruyter Brill continues the work of Pajević’s earlier collection "The Abyss as a Concept for Cultural Theory. A Comparative Exploration" (Brill, 2024), and offers new perspectives on the connections and meanings of the concept in cultural analysis. By creating links to related notions and offering case studies, it sheds light on the analysed cultures and numerous aspects of this rich and truly unfathomable field of study. In total, twelve scholars from the University of Tartu contributed to the two volumes.