The Ethics and Poetics of Remembering. Eastern European perspectives

War in Ukraine has again made visible differences in European memory cultures, revealing the severe impact of the not worked through past and drawing attention to the need to address European difficult memories. Literary testimonies as forms of moral witnessing show the ethical implications of violence on individuals and communities. Through a specific use of language and thought-images, their poetics, they help to grasp the impact of the past and the relevance of remembering.PoEthics East aims to analyse the interconnectedness of poetics and ethics of remembering from Eastern European perspectives departing from current Ukrainian war literature while widening it towards other relevant Eastern European literary examples. Whilst there have been significant contributions to memory studies and memory politics discussing the question of European memory cultures also from Eastern-European perspectives, there is little emphasis on the ethics and poetics of remembering that takes into account Eastern European positions.The project will 1) develop a theoretical framework of moral witnessing, (2) test its suitability for comparative literary analysis while deepening the understanding on the interconnectedness of ethics and poetics, 3) explore the role of thought-images for the relevance of poetic language in ethical matters and (4) synthesise results into a monograph on the ethics and poetics of remembering in Eastern European literatures. Planned activities include next to comparative textual analysis also citizen science interventions, a workshop with artists, poetry readings and an exhibition. PoEthics East is committed to open science practices and fosters interdisciplinary collaboration between academia, psychotherapy, literature and art.The fellowship will enable to build an interdisciplinary research network for pursuing further excellence driven grants and collaborative interdisciplinary endeavours, potentially in a professorial role.