Rita Dove is one of the most acclaimed poets in the United States. She was the second African American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1987.
In the lecture, she will read some of her poems, and offer a commentary and then, there will be a question-and-answer session. Her inclusive sensibility incorporates different individual experiences. In her works, she investigates the unseen, ignored, marginalized sides of history and society, and the forgotten existences are restored on the page. Her poetry is a blend of diverse and multiple perspectives, addressing gender and race issues.

In many of her works, she depicts the experience of Africa Americans and the racial discrimination they endure. Several personal and intimate poems explore what it means to be a black woman, inside and outside academia. The last collection presents a historical excursus throughout suppressed and violated communities, in different times and spaces; the journey ends in contemporary America, with the racial violence perpetrated against black men. The poems lack any propagandistic aims and are not politically engaged, her sharp visions cross boundaries, she moves across the national and international grounds, America and Europe, ancient mythology and history; she investigates and inhabits different individualities, to highlight the universal patterns of human existences.

Contact: Giulia Sperduti (Institut für Linguistik)
When: 23.05.2023, 18:00 pm
Where: Hauptgebäude, Aula 2