The Transatlantic Walt Whitman Association
Announcing
International Whitman Week 2010
INTERNATIONAL
WHITMAN WEEK 2010
SEMINAR AND SYMPOSIUM
Università di Macerata, Macerata, Italy, 14-20 June, 2010
The
Transatlantic Walt Whitman Association (TWWA), founded in Paris
in 2007, invites students, researchers, and Whitman enthusiasts
to participate in its third 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.
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International Whitman Seminar: Walt Whitman’s Poetry in the
21st Century
Università
di Macerata
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 will take place
in Macerata, Italy, on 14-20 June 2010. In the regular classes,
focusing on some of Whitman’s major poems, students will have
an opportunity 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 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. This year’s instructors will be Éric
Athenot (Université François-Rabelais, Tours), translator
of the 1855 Leaves and author of Walt Whitman, poète-cosmos;
Betsy Erkkila (Northwestern University), author of Walt Whitman
among the French and Walt 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; and
Andrew Lawson (Leeds Metropolitan University), author of Walt Whitman
and the Class Struggle.
Students will also participate in the symposium held at the end
of the week and featuring Whitman scholars from various countries.
Credits will be issued by the Università di Macerata. International
visiting students will live with their Italian counterparts, thus
keeping expenses as low as possible and creating opportunities for
a meaningful intercultural dialogue. In addition to class work on
Whitman and the symposium, students will visit Giacomo Leopardi’s
house in Recanati, and will be shown some of the artistic and architectural
treasures of the area. Macerata is a historic city of 42,000 people
in the Marche region of Italy set on the hills sloping down to the
Adriatic Sea. The university, located in the beautiful original
walled city, owns some of the most interesting historical buildings,
including Palazzo Ugolini-- the first Neoclassical palace in Macerata,
designed by the famous architect Valadier-- where the Seminar and
Symposium will be held .
Application: 15 non-Italian 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 should be
sent to camboni@unimc.it by 4 April 2010 at the latest.
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International Whitman Symposium: "‘In Paths Untrodden’:
The 1860 Leaves of Grass"
Università di Macerata, June 18-19, 2010
This year’s symposium will celebrate the 150th anniversary
of Leaves of Grass 1860.It will be devoted to the body of the 1860
Leaves with a particular focus on the many new paths Whitman opened
with it. Papers are invited to cover a wide range of approaches
to Whitman’s poems: his experimenting with multilingualism
and textual construction, his focus on the cohesive and energizing
power of human relationships and attachments, his belief in the
creative force of love, language and poetry, his anxieties about
the impending civil war. Papers focusing on international responses
to the poems in the 1860 Leaves, including translations into other
languages, are also strongly encouraged.
One-page abstracts should be sent to Marina Camboni, Università di Macerata (camboni@unimc.it), Ed Folsom (ed-folsom@uiowa.edu), and Jay Grossman (j-grossman@northwestern.edu) by 21 April, 2010.
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Contact: Eric Athenot