Acknowledgements
Having published case studies on the notion of the abyss in the works of Paul Celan and Franz Kafka many years ago, I returned to this topic reinvigorated by a sense of its timeliness and organised an international conference, which took place on 1–2 October 2021 at the University of Tartu and focused on comparable notions in numerous languages and cultures. The present volume largely results from this encounter with scholars from various fields and with diverse backgrounds. The stimulating papers and informal discussions helped to shape many of the chapters that are gathered in the volume, so my thanks go to all the contributors.
The event and the attendant research were made possible by a number of funders, whom I would like to thank on this occasion. My own research was supported by the University of Tartu ASTRA Project PER ASPERA, financed by the Regional Development Fund of the European Union. The conference received support from my research funding at the University of Tartu as well as from the German Institutional Partnership (GIP) with the University of Potsdam, financed by the German DAAD.
I also want to thank my excellent language editor, Nicola Creighton, whose thorough readings were much more than merely language editing. I am grateful to the team at Brill, namely Iulia Ivana and Masja Horn, for their always friendly and helpful support.