Röögatus! festival explores the boundaries of literature

The Röögatus! literature festival opened at Tallinn University on Tuesday with a quiz on this year’s theme: transgression, or crossing boundaries in the broadest sense, ERR reports. Organised by the university’s literary club Üdi, the festival features talks, discussions, workshops and creative events bringing together different generations and art forms.

“We want to bring lecturers and students, more experienced people and younger people together, so that there can be dialogue between generations and different media,” said Robin Lek, founder and head of the Üdi literary club. He said the theme creates an opportunity to bring together diverse fields and put them in conversation.

Organisers say the focus on crossing boundaries highlights how literature remains vibrant in today’s rapidly changing media and cultural landscape. “People keep saying that young people no longer read and that the media takes up all their attention. In reality, people are still engaging with literature, and there are many ways to do so. Literature can also be combined with other media,” Lek said.

The festival concludes on Wednesday evening with a literary performance at the Black Ceiling Hall in the Writers’ House. The programme, titled “Throw me into the forest when I die,” combines texts by several writers, poetry and sound.

Poet Jürgen Rooste described it as an expressive performance in which very different texts form a unified whole. Four participants will perform, along with a guitarist who “writes poetry in the language of sounds,” he said. The works come from seemingly different worlds but combine to create a dark and strange contemporary story.

Rooste said the festival’s broader aim is to discuss who people are, what language they speak and why they pursue their work. He said the continuing emergence of literary events shows that the era is alive and that people’s minds are active.