The essay investigates the implications for J. M. Coetzee’s poetics of his shift from an agonistic if in his case highly mediated settler tradition within South African writing, which is part of his literary and imaginative inheritance, towards a self‑consciously acquired Australian mode of realist writing, which however is equally mediated, that came with his move to that country in the early 2000s. The essay will further consider how his knowing engagement with the genre or subgenre of settler realism manifests in both his imaginative geographies as a mode at once of disconnection from and of affiliation to what for want of a better word might be called the nation. What does Coetzee’s shift between two established subgenres in post/colonial literature, the farm novel or plaasroman of South Africa, in his case refracted through a postmodern lens, and Australian realism, equally postmodern and mediated, equally agonistic, tell us about the ways in which the narrative burden of settler history, of which Coetzee is doubly aware, is inflected in his work? The analysis will be sharpened by reading this work alongside the contemporaneous representation of the matter of Australia by two of Coetzee’s prominent contemporaries, Peter Carey and Tim Winton: in particular Carey’s post‑2000 novels My Life as a Fake (2003) and Theft (2006), and Winton’s 2004 Dirt Music and his 2008 Breath.

Coetzee’s representation of township violence in Age of Iron is untypical of his work in depicting directly and vividly the horrors of life under apartheid, and the accuracy of his account can be verified by examining other documents referring to the events in Gugulethu and neighbouring townships in 1986, when state‑armed vigilantes destroyed the homes of supporters of the ANC. However, the literary dimension of his description is paramount, and the events are reviewed through the perspective of Mrs Curren, who, as a former teacher of classics, cannot help interpreting her experience through the works she has read, and who urges her daughter not to trust her account. There are a number of echoes of Vergil, especially the episode of the Aeneid in which Aeneas visits the underworld. These echoes not only contribute to the presentation of a particular character, but associate the violence being observed to a history of violence and of literary representations of violence. As a work of literature, Age of Iron does not aim to have a direct political effect, but to offer readers an experience that may continue to haunt them and thus keep alive the memory of these terrible events.

Coetzee is one of the representatives who meets with the postcolonial modern writers when postmodern colonialism. His novels and critical works are all unique. One of his writing strategies is very special and serves to express “the Island Consciousness” of his theoretical thought, which overlaps in his hybridization of fiction and nonfiction, joining “the real” and “the unreal”; “the fictive” and “the fact” to confront the censorship and censure from inner imperial consciousness. The situation of “living in between” and the dilemma of cultural identity are expressed with criticism of Western colonialism and imperialism hegemony.

Many of the issues that Tagore wrote about are still relevant today and are being faced by societies across the world, and will continue to be significant in the decades ahead. Tagore believed in a synthesis of the cultures of the East and the West: the spirituality of the East enriching itself with the rationality and scientific mind of the West. The human spirit above all would sustain and propel humankind forward when all other resources are at an ebb. Always opposed to the dehumanization introduced by industrialization and technology, Tagore believed that it is up to each individual to lead his or her life, governing it with freedom based on well‑ordered and enduring laws. Tagore’s individual is deeply enmeshed in complex networks and he draws from multiple planes in keeping with the realistic world. Tagore’s interpretation of religion was quite revolutionary, and he believed that atheism was better than superstition of religion and the shackles of ritualism. He recognized multiculturalism and plurality and realized that ethnic and minority groups and their beliefs had to be accepted as part of the complex fabric of society. He emphasized an educational system where learning was holistic, the aesthetic development of the senses being as important as the development of the intellect. Unlike Einstein, he believed that all scientific laws and objects are connected in some way with human perception and that scientific research should be carried out not just as an end in itself but for the betterment of humankind.

This essay contends that Tagore’s 1924 China visit is a landmark in the annals of the modern Chinese cultural development and the annals of Sino‑Indian relations. It created a great event in the development of culture, especially that of the new literary general view. I shall spell out my proposition in China. The conclusions of mine may be divergent from the common ones: (1) taking a macro and positive standpoint to find the significance of civilization from three sections of Tagore’s 1924 China visit from a comparative perspective, (2) examining the misunderstandings and distortions in Chinese and foreign media regarding this visit, and (3) pondering deeply what Tagore said in China when we are now in a newer era.

The paper highlights the fact that development is not to be viewed in a piecemeal fashion, nor in economic terms only, but in a holistic fashion. Although these views are now being emphasized in contemporary discourses on development, they were already articulated by Tagore several decades ago. It is now time to look at his visions and ideas to engage in development for an all‑round development of man, which could also launch an attack on sharp divisions in society.

In his writings and discourses, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson focuses on issues of equal rights, and he has strong ideas about the rights to freedom and equal treatment for each and every individual, which logically results in the appeal for equal rights for women. Through his outstanding gifts both as a poet and as a speaker, and his extensive political participation in the world that surrounded him, Bjørnson made his ideas an extraordinary impact on social problems in general and women’s emancipation issues in particular. In the 19th century, while the literary current changed from Romanticism to Realism, Bjørnson’s literary writings also developed from more romantic and poetic stories and dramas to realistic writings, and therefore demonstrated the realistic significance then and even today.

“The benevolent love of others” is exactly the spirit revealed in Bjørnson’s play The Newly Married, which highlights the conflicts in society. The play, written long ago, still carries practical significance for child‑family finance and for present Chinese society dominated by small families. From a particular perspective, The Newly Married is a meditation on an issue: after setting up their small families, how should newly married couples face their new independence and create their happy life through hard work and tolerance? The social problem play The Bankrupt, on the one hand, severely criticizes commercial fraud; on the other hand, it describes a man who spent his own savings to save his boss from bankruptcy at the same time. Of course, his later symbolic critique is a kind‑hearted young man who can win true love. At the epic play Beyond Our Powers, Bjørnson is rather moderate: he begins with acute labor‑and‑capital conflict and class struggles, but ends with a moderate solution of the conflicts. The benevolent spirit that Bjørnson believed in, which motivates and prompts, is of critical importance to us at present.

As a lyricist, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson often expresses his strong feelings in his love of nature, of Norway, and of life. “The Ocean” is one of those typical poems in which he describes in emotional terms the vastness of the ocean and the courage of his people as “riders to the sea.” From the vivid lines, we may find the unique characters of the country and the Norwegian people, who never feel daunted in the presence of foes both natural and human. Death for them is only a pause in the whole process of being. A reading of the poem also reveals to the readers a sense of musical quality. This shows that Bjørnson cares much about the rhythms of the poem, which help intensify the tension in the poem and vivify the turbulence and tumult of the ocean. Apart from the technical excellence, Bjørnson also displays his profound philosophical ideas about life and death, and his mind moves with the undulating waves in the boundless ocean. The poem transmits to the readers a heroic note and a stoic attitude towards death.

Beyond Our Power Part I (1883) and Part II (1895), two controversial plays of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832–1910), are among his most important works. In the two plays, what Bjørnson attempts to tell the audience is that the difficulties always brought about the desperate cultures and pains onto people in the years which were absent of miracle, and the desperate miracle was bound to evoke the violence which was expected to create change. As a result, the social violence brought about the revolution changed the destiny of some people, while it could not entirely change the living conditions en masse and enable them to shake off poverty and suffering. Therefore, miracles and violence cannot change society; however, only charitable social evolutions can bring about the happiness of families and of mankind. Meanwhile, Bjørnson brings onto the stage liberalism, capitalism, socialism, anarchism, and terrorism to represent the conflicts among interests, workers, and revolutionaries. Hence, his criticism towards “isms” (doctrines) has been revealed completely.

It seems clear that at the start of the 21st century the world of letters is oriented by mainstream phenomena whose source mechanisms are Western economic and political centers. Little, if any, attention is paid to literatures of the vast periphery, which includes literary creation not only by tiny nations such as Estonia (located on the shores of the Baltic Sea, and with a population of scarcely a million people), but also by much bigger communities, especially those of what has traditionally been called the third world.

Estonian poetry is still very little known outside Estonia or the community and diaspora of Estonians abroad. In part, this is because literatures of smaller nations, created in their national languages, on the whole tend to be neglected by the mainstream of world literature, which relies on literary creation in major international languages. However, trans‑cultural dynamics in poetry have their specific difficulties. They are very much present in the case of Estonian poetry, which during the scarce two hundred years of its existence has predominantly resorted to end‑rhymed stanzas, by no means easily achieved in the Estonian language itself.

Since 1950, Estonian poetry—long ignored in international literary discourse because of the small spread and unfamiliar character of the language—has made a number of notable appearances in English translations. With the work of two British translators, Harrison and Matthews, several classical poets were rendered into sonorous English, mostly with a full correspondence of rhymes and rhythmic patterns. The Estonian translator Oras continued their approaches. In the last decades of the 20th century, free‑verse translations, either of traditional forms or of original free verse, began to appear, with more interest in conveying the exact image structure. The exiled scholar and poet Ivar Ivask first translated and introduced talented new poets living in Soviet Estonia. Along with Ivask, a few Estonians have written their own poetry in English. In the 21st century, the cooperation of native Estonian speakers, mostly poets, with writers in English has produced a new level of immediacy in translations. Efforts have been abandoned to convey the full values of older, rhymed poetry. The approximation of English translations to the originals is complicated even more because of the vast grammatical and phonological differences of the languages. Elaborate new translation strategies have been developed by R. W. Steding in cooperation with T. E. Moks in their rendering of Arved Viirlaid’s poetry, and by H. L. Hix in cooperation with Jaan Talvet. A selection of the classic Juhan Liiv, a modern anthology, and two selections of Talvet’s poems have appeared in Hix’s translation in recent years.

French literature has been translated into Estonian since the late 19th century. Some authors have been central to this tradition from the very beginning, and have considerably influenced the Estonian understanding of French literature, if not literature in general. Based on the history of the reception of a few such authors—Zola, Balzac, Baudelaire, and Molière—the article shows in what ways the Estonian literary tradition has been nourished by this cultural contact and how reading French literature has grown into an important part of it.

Jüri Talvet is a famous modern Estonian poet and writer, whose poetry collection Estonian Elegy and prose A Call for Cultural Symbiosis, translated from Estonian into English by H. L. Hix, poet and scholar at the University of Wyoming, have been published by Canadian Independent Publishers Group. In his poems, the poet profoundly expresses his deep love for his motherland, his nation, and the human race. In his prose, he appeals to the world for cultural equality and symbiosis among different nations and cultures. He severely condemns big powers’ hegemony, cultural imperialism, and the marginalization of minorities, vulnerable cultures, and poor countries, and he vehemently calls for cultural symbiosis in the world. Consequently, these two books are very useful and necessary for the study of the writer’s content, his creation concepts, and for further research on contemporary Estonian literature.

The 2007 International Conference on 20th‑Century American Poetry in Wuhan, China, inaugurated a new era for American poetry study in China and for the exchange of poetry between China and America. The landmark conference proceedings included over seventy essays by authors from around the world. The conference also led to the formation of the Chinese/American Association for Poetry and Poetics (CAAP), based at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing (CPCW). In order to facilitate academic exchange and to promote poetry and poetics of (and beyond) America and China, CAAP co‑hosted “Dialog on Poetry and Poetics: The First Convention of the Chinese/American Association for Poetry and Poetics” (Wuhan, China, September 29–30, 2011) with CPCW at Penn, Central China Normal University, Foreign Literature Studies (an AHCI journal), and Forum for World Literature Studies. CAAP President Marjorie Perloff, professor at Stanford University and fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), CAAP Vice‑President Charles Bernstein, professor at the University of Pennsylvania and fellow of AAAS, and CAAP Vice‑President Nie Zhenzhao, professor at Central China Normal University and vice‑president of the China National Association of Foreign Literatures, attended the conference together with many other scholars from America, China, and other parts of the world. The organizers sincerely invited all scholars and poets of the world to this grand academic occasion.