Yoko Tawada’s literary universe is one of shifting realities, linguistic slippages, and metamorphic bodies. A bilingual writer working in both Japanese and German, Tawada dismantles conventional notions of language, identity, and perception in a way that is reminiscent of Surrealist poetics. From her early poetry to her novels Kentōshi (The Emissary, 2018) and Etüden im Schnee (Memoirs of a Polar Bear, 2016), Tawada’s writing embraces themes of the unconscious, bodily transformation, and linguistic estrangement. Her work bends the rules of grammar and meaning, turning mistranslations, polyglot wordplay, and dreamlike distortions into a radical artistic strategy.

During this session, Tawada reads from an unpublished story, offering audiences a rare glimpse into her evolving literary world. In conversation with Ulrike Vedder, she explores her relationship to Surrealism—both in the sense of historical affinities and as an intuitive literary orientation. This discussion traverses themes of exile, translation as artistic reinvention, and the Surrealist potential hidden within the everyday. Tawada’s literary practice, much like the Surrealists before her, seeks to liberate language from fixed meaning, revealing unexpected dimensions of reality.