Inaugural lecture by Marko Pajević, UT Professor of German Studies

If we want to understand the world, we must first of all understand our access to it. In Professor Pajević’s view, when making sense of our perceptions, we necessarily recur to language. Our sensual perceptions pass through words in order for us to make sense of them and to establish what we consider the world we live in, our worldview. Consequently, meaning comes with language.
Literature can be considered the laboratory of meaning. If we want to think the specificity of literature, la chose littéraire, we must however think beyond the sign and find ways of considering other dimensions of meaning-making. Poetic thinking considers language not as a product but as an activity of the interaction between the form of language and the form of life. That implies that we have to consider the continuous (Henri Meschonnic) of language: we could say with Wilhelm von Humboldt that it is not the words that constitute speech but, on the contrary, the words emerge out of speech. Language is thus always determined by its unique situation. Reason must resonate with the world; we have to ‘reasonate’. This is the dialogical dimension of poetic thinking, the relationship primes.

Vocals  by Anoki von Arx, piano Jaan Kapp
1. Puccini: Turandot - Tu che di gel sei cinta
2. Puccini: Gianni Schicchi - Oh mio babbino caro
3. Verdi: Il trovatore - Stride la vampa