The Transatlantic Walt Whitman Association
Announcing
International Whitman Week 2012
INTERNATIONAL WHITMAN WEEK 2012 SEMINAR AND SYMPOSIUM
Uniwersytet Szczecinski (University of Szczecin) – Pobierowo, Poland: May 28 – June 3, 2012.
The Transatlantic Walt Whitman Association (TWWA), founded in Paris in 2007, invites students, researchers, and Whitman enthusiasts to participate in its fifth annual Whitman Week, consisting of a seminar for advanced students interested in Whitman and Whitman's poetry, and a symposium bringing together international scholars and graduate students. The 2012 seminar and symposium will be held in a villa owned by the University of Szczecin and located on the Baltic Sea in Pobierowo, Poland.
Transatlantic
Whitman Seminar: Walt Whitman's Poetry and Its International
Interpretations
US – Uniwersytet Szczecinski, Pobierowo May 28 – June 1, 2012
Walt
Whitman's poetry, written in the nineteenth century, continues to
have
a strong impact on literatures and cultures worldwide. Every year
new
editions of Whitman's work are published in a variety of languages;
an
ever-expanding group of poets "reply" 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 in Macerata,
Italy, in
June 2010, and the fourth in Araraquara, Sao Paulo, Brazil, in July,
2011.
In the morning classes, focusing on some of Whitman's major poems,
students will have an opportunity to confront Whitman's 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 work's international significance. In
addition, there will be special afternoon
workshops on the reception of Whitman in various countries and languages,
as well as the translation of his poems into German, French, Italian,
Portuguese and Polish. The Walt Whitman Archive will be used as
the text for the seminar (www.whitmanarchive.org). Assigned
readings will be emailed
to students a month before the seminar begins.
The
2012 instructors for the morning classes will be Ed Folsom (University
of Iowa), co-founder and editor of the Walt Whitman Archive, and
author or
editor of ten books on Whitman; Walter Grünzweig (Technical
University of
Dortmund), author of Walt Whitmann and Constructing the German Walt
Whitman; Kenneth M. Price (University of Nebraska, Lincoln), co-founder
and editor of the Walt Whitman Archive and author or editor of six
books on Whitman, and Agnieszka Salska (University of Lodz), author
of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson: Poetry of the Central Consciousness.
The afternoon translation workshops will be led by Marina Camboni
(University of Macerata), Mario Corona (Bergamo University), Eric
Áthenot
(University of Tours), Betsy Erkkila (Northwestern University),
Maria Clara
Bonetti Paro (Sao Paulo State Unversity), Vanessa Steinroetter (Washburn
University), and Marta Skwara (University of Szczecin).
Credits
will be issued by the University of Szczecin. All international
students will live together with their Polish colleagues and with
the
instructors in a University of Szczecin villa in Pobierowo (on the
Baltic
Coast) thus creating opportunities for a meaningful intercultural
dialogue.
There will be no charge for rooms for the seminar students. There
are
several kitchens in the villa that can be used for preparing meals,
and
there are grocery stores nearby. There are also many restaurants
and bars
nearby, serving everything from inexpensive meals to fine cuisine,
so
everyone can choose the most convenient way of having meals.
Students
may also participate in the Symposium held immediately after the
seminar which starts on June 1 (afternoon) and ends on June 3 (noon),
featuring Whitman scholars from various countries.
In addition to the Seminar and the Symposium, students will be offered
opportunities to participate in some interesting walks to nearby
scenic
places (the villa is situated only 50 meters from the coast). There
will be
a welcome dinner and goodbye bonfire at the beach; other attractions
will be
announced later.
Application to the Seminar: 15 international students and 15 Polish
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
the
director of the seminar, Professor Marta Skwara
(marta.skwara@univ.szczecin.pl <mailto:marta.skwara@univ.szczecin.pl>
) by February 20, 2012 at the latest.
International Whitman Symposium: Whitman, the Earth, and Ecology
Uniwersytet Szczecinski (University of Szczecin), Pobierowo June 1-3, 2012
This
year's symposium, titled "'Voluptuous Cool-Breath'd Earth':
Whitman,
the Earth, and Ecology.", will welcome papers on topics having
to do with
Whitman's attitudes toward nature, his relationship to nineteenth-century
origins of the Green movement, and his influence on later ecological
writers. For those who are participating only in the symposium additional
places in the villa (free of charge) or in nearby B&Bs (for
a fee) will be
provided.
One-page
abstracts should be sent no later than April 20, 2012, to all the
Symposium Organizers
Ed Folsom (ed-folsom@uiowa.edu)
Kenneth Price (kprice@unlnotes.unl.edu)
Marina Camboni (marina.camboni@fastwebnet.it)
Marta Skwara (marta.skwara@univ.szczecin.pl)
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Contact: Eric Athenot