BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Sabre//Sabre VObject 4.5.8//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/Zurich X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/Zurich TZURL:http://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Europe/Zurich BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:CEST DTSTART:19810329T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:CET DTSTART:19961027T030000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:news683@english.philhist.unibas.ch DTSTAMP;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20260218T175545 DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20260317T141500 SUMMARY:Walt Whitman: Garden Poet? DESCRIPTION:Seemingly at odds with Whitman’s guiding interest in undomest icated nature\, gardens nonetheless form a nodal point of his ecopoetics. This talk reveals how throughout Leaves of Grass\, gardens matter as mater ial geographies that crystallize a core concern of Whitman’s work—how to live in and with the nonhuman world. In the nineteenth century\, garden s signified genteel culture\, based on nature’s control\, ornamentation\ , and ownership. Whitman instead turns gardens into liminal realms of wild ness\, work\, and mobility\, recasting them as utopian sites of ecological and social possibility. Surprisingly\, his transformed\, transformative g ardens profoundly resonate with environmentally insightful discussions of horticulture that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century and have resurface d in the twenty-first. However\, unlike environmentalists then and now\, W hitman refrains from suggesting that such natural-cultural spaces provide a solution to the conflicts between ecological perspectives and the democr atic ideals they serve to negotiate. Instead\, he leaves the tensions and incongruities inherent to gardens fully intact.\\r\\n\\r\\nBiography\\r\\n Christine Gerhardt is Professor of American Studies at the University of B amberg\, Germany. She is the author of A Place for Humility: Whitman\, Dic kinson\, and the Natural World (2014)\, winner of the CHOICE Outstanding B ook Award. She is also the author of a monograph on the Reconstruction per iod in American novels (2003)\, editor of the Handbook of the American Nov el of the Nineteenth Century (2018)\, and co-editor of Environmental Imagi naries on the Move (2016) and Religion in the United States (2011). Her wo rk has appeared in Profession\, ESQ\, the Emily Dickinson Journal\, Missis sippi Quarterly\, Poroi\, and Forum for Modern Language Studies. X-ALT-DESC:

Seemingly at odds with Whitman’s guiding interest in undome sticated nature\, gardens nonetheless form a nodal point of his ecopoetics . This talk reveals how throughout Leaves of Grass\, gardens matter as material geographies that crystallize a core concern of Whitman’s wo rk—how to live in and with the nonhuman world. In the nineteenth century \, gardens signified genteel culture\, based on nature’s control\, ornam entation\, and ownership. Whitman instead turns gardens into liminal realm s of wildness\, work\, and mobility\, recasting them as utopian sites of e cological and social possibility. Surprisingly\, his transformed\, transfo rmative gardens profoundly resonate with environmentally insightful discus sions of horticulture that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century and have resurfaced in the twenty-first. However\, unlike environmentalists then an d now\, Whitman refrains from suggesting that such natural-cultural spaces provide a solution to the conflicts between ecological perspectives and t he democratic ideals they serve to negotiate. Instead\, he leaves the tens ions and incongruities inherent to gardens fully intact.

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Biography

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Christine Gerhardt is Professor of American St udies at the University of Bamberg\, Germany. She is the author of A Pl ace for Humility: Whitman\, Dickinson\, and the Natural World (2014)\, winner of the CHOICE Outstanding Book Award. She is also the author of a monograph on the Reconstruction period in American novels (2003)\, editor of the Handbook of the American Novel of the Nineteenth Century (20 18)\, and co-editor of Environmental Imaginaries on the Move (2016) and Religion in the United States (2011). Her work has appeared in Profession\, ESQ\, the Emily Dickinson Journal\, Mississippi Qu arterly\, Poroi\, and Forum for Modern Language Studies.

DTEND;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20260317T160000 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR