19 March 2024, 8pm-9.30pm GMT
Event Details
In his Guide to the Lakes, William Wordsworth famously denounces the larch tree (Larix decidua) as a ‘spiky tree’ that causes ‘injury’ and ‘deformity’ to his Lakeland landscape. The poet took issue with the ‘vegetable manufactory’ of this tree species and questioned both its visual appeal and monetary value for contemporary landowners. Using Wordsworth’s views of this tree—and representations of other tree species across his writings—as a starting point, this Tree Talk will address the relationship(s) between trees, tourism, and biodiversity in the Lake District in the early nineteenth-century. Moreover, it will consider the relevance and inheritance of these interconnected discourses to how we understand trees, their cultural significance, and ecological place within and beyond the Lakes, today.
Speakers
- Dr John Lovseth (Principia College, USA)
- Professor Nick Mason (Brigham Young University, USA)
- Professor Saeko Yoshikawa (Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, Japan)
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
Image: George Barret (1767-1842), Grasmere from the South End of the Lake, undated, watercolour drawing.
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