Jeffrey CHILDS (Universidade Aberta, Portugal)

Developing a Poetry Collection in a Virtual Forum: A Case Study


Begun in 2008, the Poetic Strands project has sought to bring together two interrelated cultural processes which tend, nonetheless, to be carried out independently from each other: the conducting of an on-line poetry translation workshop and the preparation of a bilingual poetry collection, in this case centered on the work of the American poet Mark Strand. The involvement of both the Open University of Portugal and the University of Lisbon has brought to the project a range of educational contexts and technological possibilities, each of which has left its mark on the identity of the project. In this paper, I propose to look specifically at what the nature of this project has meant in terms of the definition of a traditional print-oriented poetry collection. How, for instance, has this traditional aim shaped the nature of the collaborative work carried out in a virtual forum? Conversely, what concerns and challenges has the collaborative nature of this project brought to the fore, and what strategies might be employed to deal with these? I will attempt to trace the emergence of these and other theoretical questions from their initial appearance as tensions or problems in highly practical, transaction‑governed contexts.