In recent years, magical writing and folklore have increasingly become a means of analyzing social reality. Fairy tales, spells, mythological images, and archaic structures unexpectedly help authors address trauma, memory, violence, migration, and the history of the state—sometimes even more accurately than documentary realism. How are magical and documentary writing converging today? Why do folkloric structures help describe today's reality? How is this related to decoloniality? And what motifs from Slavic, Caucasian, and other traditions are proving particularly relevant to contemporary literature?
Four writers working on the boundaries of folklore, magical realism, and social writing will discuss this topic. Yegana Jabbarova is a poet and novelist ("The Hands of the Women of My Family Were Not for Writing," "Dua for the Infidel," "Terra Nullius") who actively works with Azerbaijani folklore and mythology. Toni Lashden is the author of "Black Forest," which uses Belarusian mythology as a tool for conversation about collective memory and violence.
Yegan Jabbarova
Tony Lashden
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The moderator is publisher and cultural producer Yulia Petrovpavlovskaya (It Makes Sense).