I'm going to ASLE, gods help me, whether this gets taken or not. The conference is at my alma mater, which is odd all by itself, and by a lot of lovely places I want to visit again with D. Not to mention a slew of old friends in the whole NC/SC area. And what area would that be? The NC/SC. . . oh, fuck you.
Here's the current draft of the proposal, due on Monday. I'll take suggestions.
Talking “from” Ecopoetry: Theory and Practice in Ecopoeisis
It’s a commonplace of the late Twentieth and early Twenty-First Century thought that we always have a critical frame for interpreting the world, whether we are conscious of the frame or not.
Postmodernism has done a thorough job turning its critical apparatus into creative content. Ecocriticism has staked out a constellation of approaches, to non-fiction especially. This paper asks: as ecopoetry gains practitioners (as well as reputation and status), how can (and are) ecopoets using their critical apparatus to compose their work?
This paper will briefly discuss definitions of ecopoetry (e.g., Bryson, Elder, Gilcrest, Scigaj) and then use those definitions to look at one or two contemporary ecopoets (e.g., Harjo, Sze) before using some of the author’s original work to move from critical engagement to a discussion of creative choices that an ecopoet (might) make. The paper will look at the thinking that informs these compositional choices, as well as where those positions might take other ecopoets as they compose. It is important that, as a young field, ecopoetry be able to answer to older models what new and interesting possibilities it can offer.
Sounds like a good proposal to me. Go for it, James!!
Posted by: Tanya | January 10, 2007 at 07:14 PM