Like the poets of antiquity, Wordsworth turns to vocal groves as sites of commiseration and inspiration. The sounds of trees echo human experience, from the whispers of leaves to the groans of branches. Trees are associated with connection and communication in Wordsworth's poetry and life, from the 'dark sycamore' that connects the poet's memories to the present landscape in 'Tintern Abbey', to Wordsworth's communion with his dead brother amidst the murmuring fir-grove. This Tree Talk will approach themes of connection and communication through trees, from Tree Alphabets and translations to treescapes communicated through film. For Wordsworth, as for us, trees offer solace and hope in troubling times.
Speakers
Katie Holten (author of The Language of Trees)
Dr John Miller (Senior Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature, University of Sheffield, UK)
'The Language of Trees': Katie Holten
Katie Holten will share a behind the scenes look at some of her recent work including her Tree Alphabets and her new book, The Language of Trees.
The Language of Trees invites readers to consider our relationship with literature and landscape resulting in an astonishing fusion of storytelling and art. It is a deeply beautiful celebration of trees through the ages. Holten gifts readers her tree alphabet and uses it to masterfully translate and illuminate beloved lost and new, original writing in praise of the natural world by writers including Ada Limón, Ross Gay, Robert Macfarlane, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Elizabeth Kolbert, Winona LaDuke, Richard Powers, and Robin Wall Kimmerer.
The Language of Trees is a call to action for those who still care.
'Forests after the End of the Word: Trees and Hope in Douglas Trumbull's Silent Running and Wanuri Kahui's Pumzi': John Miller
The expression of hope in an era of ecological crisis often involves the imagining of forests, whether through the material, political commitment to address global heating by means of mass tree-planting programmes, or via the symbolic function of trees as emblems of renewal and redemption. This paper explores the conjunction of trees and hope through the depiction of two post-apocalyptic forests, grown from the ruins of social and ecological collapse. The first is the simulated forest domes of Douglas Trumbull's eco-sf classic Silent Running (1972). The second is the skeleton forest of Wanuri Kahui's short film Pumzi (2010). The overarching aim of this work is to contribute to the history of arboreal aesthetics and to explore the role of forest in political projections of future worlds.
What are 'Tree Talks'?
Tree Talks is a series of online discussions about tree-oriented research, interests, and activism in the environmental humanities and beyond. It aims to bring together experts from different research disciplines and to create a space to disseminate, explore, and forge links between a diverse range of tree topics that are relevant to our past, present, and future environments.
This series of three Tree Talks will be held in collaboration with the Wordsworth Trust. Each of the sessions will feature short talks on a tree-related topic, an introduction to a related object in the Wordsworth Trust's collections, and will be followed with an open Q&A discussion.
Sessions are free to attend, but booking is required.
Organisers
Tree Talks is co-organised by Dr Amanda Blake Davis and Dr Anna Burton, Lecturers in English Literature at the University of Derby. Their new and collaborative project, 'Romantic Trees: The Literary Arboretum, 1740-1840', explores Romantic responses to a range of individual trees and tree species and pays particular attention to shedding light on the network of international and environmental contexts within which they were viewed, culminating in the opening of the first modern arboretum, Derby Arboretum, in 1840.
How to book and attend
Attendees will receive a webinar registration link shortly after booking a free ticket. This event takes place on Zoom, and automatic live captions will be provided by Otter.ai
Season (31 May 2024) | ||
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Day | Times | |
Friday | 20:00 | - 21:30 |
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