Environmental and Urban Studies Program and Asian Studies Program Present
Into the Woods
Monday, October 27, 2014
RKC 103
The Aesthetics and Ethics of Nature in Modern Japanese Poetry
A lecture by Nicholas Albertson, Assistant Professor of Japanese, Wake Forest University
In their bold poetic experiments of the late 1890s and early 1900s, Shimazaki Tōson and other Japanese writers sought new artistic and ethical insights in “natural” environments freed from conventional poetic allusions. By immersing themselves in unspoiled forest, mountain, and seashore landscapes, these poets found new ideals of “nature” entangled with Romantic ideals of poetic genius. But did these wandering poets sense the dangers in holding up nature as simultaneously safely beyond civilization and harmonious with civilization? Looking ahead to films such as Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, we can question the ethical implications of a belief that nature can purify us both aesthetically and chemically.
Free and open to the public.
For more information, call 845-758-7809, or e-mail [email protected].
Location: RKC 103