The Transatlantic Walt Whitman Association
Announcing
International Whitman Week 2011
INTERNATIONAL WHITMAN WEEK 2011 SEMINAR AND SYMPOSIUM
UNESP
- Universidade Estadual Paulista, Araraquara, SP, Brazil 11-16 July,
2011
The
Transatlantic Walt Whitman Association (TWWA), founded in Paris
in 2007, invites students, researchers, and Whitman enthusiasts
to participate in its fourth annual Whitman Week, consisting of
a seminar for advanced students interested in Whitman and Whitman¹s
poetry, and a symposium bringing together international scholars
and graduate students.
International Whitman Seminar: Walt Whitman¹s Poetry in the
21st Century
UNESP-Universidade Estadual Paulista, 11-15 July 2011
Walt
Whitman¹s poetry, written in the nineteenth century, continues
to have
a strong impact on literatures and cultures worldwide. Every year
new
editions of Whitman¹s work are published in a variety of languages;
an
ever-expanding group of poets ³reply² to him in their
poetry; his poems are
set to music and are quoted in films; he is invoked in the discussion
of
political and cultural issues as well as of gender and sexuality;
and he
continues to be a huge presence in college and university curricula
globally. In order to respond adequately to this international phenomenon,
The Transatlantic Walt Whitman Association sponsors a series of
International Whitman Seminars, where students from different countries
come together for intensive, credit-bearing classes taught by an
international team of Whitman specialists.
The
first seminar was held in Dortmund, Germany, in June 2008, the second
took place in Tours, France, in June 2009, the third took place
in Macerata,
Italy, 14-20 June 2010 and the fourth will take place in Araraquara,
SP,
Brazil, 11-16 July, 2011. In the regular classes, focusing on some
of
Whitman¹s major poems, students will have an opportunity to
confront
Whitman¹s books, share their readings of key poems and clusters,
and discuss Whitman's attempts at a multilingual English, his cohesive
representation of human relations, and his work¹s international
significance in the twenty-first century. In addition, there will
be special presentations on the reception of Whitman in various
countries and languages, as well as
other topics. The Library of America paperback edition of Whitman
and the
Whitman Archive www.whitmanarchive.org1 will be used as textual
sources in the seminar. A list of suggested readings for students
will be included in the webpage of the event:
waltwhitmanweek2011.wordpress.com2.
The
2011 instructors will be Betsy Erkkila (Northwestern University),
author
of Walt Whitman among the French and Whitman the Political Poet;
Kenneth M. Price (University of Nebraska, Lincoln), co-founder and
editor of the Walt
Whitman Archive, author of To Walt Whitman, America, Marina Camboni
(Universitá di Macerata) editor of Utopia in the Present
Tense: Walt Whitman
and the Language of the New World and Rodrigo Garcia Lopes, poet,
novelist
and the Brazilian translator of the First Edition of Leaves of Grass.
Credits
will be issued by the Universidade Estadual Paulista. International
visiting students will live with their Brazilian counterparts, thus
keeping
expenses as low as possible and creating opportunities for a meaningful
intercultural dialogue.
Students
will also participate in the Symposium held immediately after the
seminar on July 15 (afternoon) and 16, featuring Whitman scholars
from
various countries.
Application:
15 non-Brazilian international students will be accepted to the
Week. Applications should include a curriculum-vitae, a one-page
statement
of interest in the seminar, and a short letter of support by an
instructor
who knows the applicant. Applications and the letters of recommendation
should be sent to waltwhitmanweek@fclar.unesp.br3 by 20 February
2011 at the latest.
In
addition to the Seminar and the Symposium participants will be offered
opportunities to know historical and cultural places, to listen
to Brazilian
music and to enjoy the countryside of the region of Araraquara,
an
aboriginal word that means ³the dwelling of the sun².
Both the seminar and
symposium will be held at an old farmhouse, Chácara Sapucaia,
which was
donated to the university and has been turned into a cultural center
called
Centro Cultural Prof. Waldemar Saffiotti. It was in this farmhouse
that
writer and critic Mário de Andrade, one of the most prominent
figures in the
Brazilian modernist movement and an avid reader of Leaves of Grass
wrote his masterpiece Macunaíma, o herói sem nenhum
caráter.
International Whitman Symposium: "Salut au Monde!: Walt Whitman
across
Continents"
Universidade Estadual Paulista, 15-16 July 2011
This
year's symposium, titled "Salut au Monde!: Walt Whitman across
Continents," focuses on Whitman¹s international influence
and on
international responses to his work. Since this is the first meeting
of the
Transatlantic Walt Whitman Association to meet outside Europe, we
are
especially, but not exclusively, interested in paper proposals that
pay
special attention to Whitman's writings in a Latin American and
South
American context. What are the literary, artistic, political, and
cultural
uses to which Whitman's writings have been applied in Latin America
or South America? How have particular writers, translators, artists,
film-makers, and musicians from around the world ³talked through²
Whitman in revealing ways?
Papers examining translations of Whitman¹s work, as well as
the ways in
which these translations may have altered Whitman¹s poetry
or prose for
absorption into non-English speaking cultures, are also welcome,
as are
papers about Whitman¹s interest in and ideas about other cultures.
One-page abstracts should be sent by 20 April 2011 to all four of
the Symposium Organizers:
Ed Folsom (ed-folsom@uiowa.edu4)
Jay Grossman (j-grossman@northwestern.edu5)
Éric Athenot (eric.athenot@orange.fr6)
Maria
Clara Bonetti Paro
(mclara@fclar.unesp.br7)
Contact:
waltwhitmanweek@fclar.unesp.br3
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Contact: Eric Athenot