Geopoetics at the crossroad of literature, geography and botany – Presented by Rachel Bouvet

Description: 

Geopoetics opens a transdisciplinary field at the intersection of literature, arts, earth sciences and human sciences. Research and creation are the two facets of a sensitive and intellectual process which aims to intensify the relation to the world. First, the geopoetics approach of the literary text will be situated in relation to geocritics and literary geography. Then, Bouvet will present the results of the research group “Botanical Imaginary and Ecological Sensitivity”, that she co-supervised with Stephanie Posthumus, a specialist of ecocritism. This collaboration led to the development of an interdisciplinary group: GRIVE (Research Group on Plants and Environment) and the establishment of a partnership between academic and cultural entities (such as Montreal’s Botanical Garden and La Traversée).

Bio:

Rachel Bouvet is a professor in the Department of Literary Studies at the University of Québec at Montréal. Her research focuses on space, the fantastic, exoticism, geopoetics, plant studies and theories of reading. She is the co-founder of La Traversée, a geopoetics workshop that has been active since 2004 and which regularly publishes cutting-edge geopoetic literature and sponsors scholarly conferences. She is also director of the Research Group on the Botanical Imaginary and Ecological Sensitivity and GRIVE: Interdisciplinary Research Group on the Vegetal and the Environment. Her scholarly publications include (titles translated): Towards a Geopoetic Approach: Readings of Kenneth White, Victor Segalen and J.-M.G. Le Clézio (PUQ, 2015), The New Territory: The Geopoetic Exploration of Space (Cahiers Figura, 2008), The City and Geopoetics (L’Harmattan, 2016), Geopoetics of the Confines (PUR, 2018). Her literary works include Le vent des rives et Tisser les voix (Mémoire d’encrier, 2014, 2019).

Sponsors: This talk is sponsored by the Department of French & Italian, the Anonymous Fund, and the French House.