The paper will address the work of John Burnside, Kathleen Jamie, and Alice Oswald, from a mostly phenomenological perspective, opening to discuss the writing of poetry itself, from the ‘other side’, that is, as a poet. With a little from Hardy and Woolf too, it will look at the way in which one might respond to place, and how voice comes to bear witness to place, so that the voice in, and the writing of the poetic text arrives as a response to the phenomenally and materiality of the other. In order to illustrate this in a number of ways, Julian will read from his first novel, Silent Music, a collection of poetry and essays, Draping the Sky for a Snowfall, and The Grand European Bestiary / Wielki Bestiarius europejski – a bilingual collection of poems. In conclusion, he will sketch directions for new work including some ambient soundscapes, musical improvisations, which are recorded in situ in the landscape.
Julian Wolfreys is Professor of English and Director of the Centre for Studies in Literature at the University of Portsmouth. Author and editor of over forty books, his most recent publication is Haunted Experience: Being, Loss, Memory (Triarchy Press),and he is at present completing work on a book about Englishness, melancholy, memory and place in the 21st century. Having completed and published two collections of poetry (Draping the Sky for a Snowfall) (The Grand European Bestiary / Wielki Bestiariusz europejski) and a novel (Silent Music) in the past three years, and has recently completed a second novel set in Dorset and California in the nineteenth century, entitled The Farcical Tragedy of Hugo del Fuego and is working on a third volume of poetry. Julian is also a musician, working as a solo performer and as part of a duo, Stupidity, who are recording a CD, titled The Broccoli Forest, due for release at the end of spring this year.
Copies of the books will be on sale. All proceeds to the World Wildlife Fund
Book places on Bath Spa Live – Lectures; a web search will find it
