ECOLOGY, MYTH AND FEMINISM IN DANISH AND GREEK LITERATURE

Occasioned by the recent publication of of Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen's The Sea Letters in Greek (Αλληλογραφία δύο θαλασσών, tr. by Trine Stauning Willert, Mov Skiouros Publications, 2025), this event brings together Greek and Danish writers, translators, critics and readers for a discussion of the role of myth and the power of fiction in the face of climate crisis.

In Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen’s The Sea Letters, the Atlantic and Mediterranean are imagined as two sister seas exchanging intimate letters about life, humanity, climate change, and the fate of the planet. In its blend of myth and ecological imagination, the seas become the protagonists, while humanity becomes just one small part of a much larger story. An important contribution to the a longer tradition of ecofeminist literature in Scandinavia, The Sea Letters also reflects an emerging interest among younger Danish writers in Greek mythology to explore questions of nature, gender, power, and our relationship with the planet and the more-than-human world.

The publication of Jacobsen’s book in Greek thus invites a discussion about how questions of ecology, feminism and myth are used and treated in Greek and Danish literature.

18.30: Welcome

18:40: Introduction by translator Trine Stauning Willert

18.500: Thalassini Bost reading from Greek translation of The Sea Letters

19.00: Mov Skiouros Publications about publishing The Sea Letters

19.10: Author Rena Luna about The Sea Letters and feminism 

19.20: Author Amanda Michalopoulou about The Sea Letters and climate crisis in fiction

19.30: Author Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen on imagining the voice of the seas

19.45: Moderated discussion about (eco)feminism and climate crisis in literature