New Thinking: Eco-Criticism

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2021

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From Bessie Head to Keats, Rachel Carson to Lorine Niedecker, Lisa Mullen and guests analyse links between literature and nature as an increasing number of university departments offer eco-criticism courses focusing on the way writers past and present have thought about the environment.

Samuel Solnick specialises in environmental humanities at the University of Liverpool, and is particularly interested in the relationship between literature and science. His books include Poetry and the Anthropocene: Ecology, biology and technology in contemporary British and Irish poetry (Book - 2018) Samantha Walton is an academic and poet at Bath Spa University, specialising in ecological feminism and the relation between nature and mental health. Her books include The Living World: Nan Shepherd and Environmental Thought (2020), Bad Moon (poetry - 2020), and Everybody Needs Beauty: In Search of the Nature Cure (2021). Harriet Tarlo, is both a poet and a critic at Sheffield Hallam University, where she practices and preaches the importance of radical nature writing. Published work includes On Ecopoetics: Harriet Tarlo and Jonathan Skinner in Conversation and Off path, counter path: contemporary walking collaborations in landscape, art and poetry and a Shearsman Press book Poems 2004-2014.

This episode was made in partnership with the AHRC, part of UKRI. You can find more about New Research in a playlist on the Free Thinking programme website - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03zws90 - where you’ll find other episodes in the New Thinking strand showcasing academic research.

You might also be interested in the Green Thinking playlist on the Free Thinking website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07zg0r2 which includes Amitav Gosh https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00066px on his most recent novel and on his arguments about the need for literature to engage with the climate https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07z7bnd Poet Elizabeth Jane Burnett sharing her Soil Stories https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08fj505 A discussion of the influential writing of Rachel Carson https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0005gwk There's more on researching Wordsworth from the directors of Lancaster University's Wordsworth Centre for the Study of Poetry https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p087kr4n Bessie Head is discussed in this Free Thinking episode https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001dt8

Ian McMillan on Radio 3's The Verb has been speaking to a whole host of writers and poets about nature, the environment and our changing times https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tnsf/episodes/downloads

Radio 3 is also part of a Soundscapes for Wellness project where you can find mixes involving natural sounds on BBC Sounds. https://canvas-story.bbcrewind.co.uk/soundscapesforwellbeing/ On this link you can find out how to take part in a Virtual Nature Experiment organised by the University of Exeter co-created by sound recordist Chris Watson and film composer, Nainita Desai.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps
0:21.2	it. It's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream
0:26.1	van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds. I'm Lisa Mullen
0:33.1	and welcome to an episode of the Arts and Ideas podcast in our new thinking strand, which showcases
0:38.5	the latest academic research. So come with me for a taste of some of the liveliest debates
0:43.0	going on in the world of literature at the moment. We're asking a big question today. Can we as
0:48.3	humans understand the voices of nature? And if we could, what would they say? Ecocriticism is a movement in literary studies
0:56.6	which thinks about the strange intuitive conversations that poets and other writers have with our
1:01.6	living environment, conversations which help them and us to probe the outer limits of language
1:07.4	in literature. Shakespeare wrote about hearing tongues in trees, books in the running
1:13.0	brooks and sermons in stones, as if nature would simply speak for itself if only we could
1:18.3	tune in properly. But for that other great bard, Dr Seuss, the approach would seem to be less direct.
1:24.8	In his book, The Lorax, he dreamed up a furry, irritable little creature
1:28.7	who would speak for the trees, not to mention the hummingfish, the swammy swans and the brown
1:34.3	barbelutes in their barbelute suits. So, who would win in a fight between Shakespeare and
1:40.3	Dr. Zeus? Amazingly, that's not a question which has yet been properly addressed in
1:44.7	academic circles. But luckily, I have three incredible thinkers here with me who have spent
1:49.2	years thinking about nature, poetry, and what it might mean to speak a language which is more than
1:54.8	human. Joining me are Sam Solnick, who specialises in environmental humanities at the University of Liverpool,
2:02.9	and is particularly interested in the relationship between literature and science.
2:07.5	We also have Samantha Walton, who is a poet and academic at Bath Spa University
2:11.7	with a special interest in the emotional aspects of our relationship with the environment
	...

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