How has our respect and love for the environment inspired literature and music?
Can it be linked with a growing concern for impending climate change?
Explore these questions of art, the environment, and the green thinking of D.H. Lawrence at a conference of environmental and ecocritical questions on the work of D.H. Lawrence, taking place at Eastwood Baptist Church on Saturday 3rd September.
The morning session will include the talk ‘Beyond ‘Linden Lea’ – D.H. Lawrence, Walt Whitman and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ given by Professor Keith Alldritt (FRSL).
There are two sessions in the afternoon, beginning with ‘The Voice of Nethermere’ – transforming ‘The White Peacock’ into a musical cantata, including a performance of the work.
The session is led by Alan Wilson and Malcolm Gray.
“Music has a language of its own, drawing from all sounds and images around us. In this conference, we will explore how nature produces a pastoral tapestry of evocative experience, from the folk inspired music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, to a local cantata setting of Laurence’s ‘White Peacock’ novel. This experience is discussed alongside a similar artistic movement through the literature of Walt Whitman and DH Lawrence”
Alan Wilson Chairman of the D.H. Lawrence Society
This will be followed with a talk by Professor Terry Gifford entitled ‘Reading Lawrence in the Anthropocene’, asking if there is a connection between Lawrence and our concern for climate change.
The conference is on the first weekend of the D.H. Lawrence Festival, which takes place from the 2nd to 11th September at a range of venues across Eastwood and the surrounding countryside. A program of the events can be found here. This year the festival celebrates the environmental writing of Lawrence, as well as the connections to mining within his work.
“This year’s D. H. Lawrence Festival offers a wide range of events to tempt anyone with an interest in Lawrence and the social and cultural history of the Eastwood area. There are talks, a reading group, walks, open days at the Lawrence Birthplace Museum, Greasley Church and the Breach House, an organ mass and reflective concert, live music events, and much much more.”
Dr Andrew Harrison Director, D. H. Lawrence Research Centre
The conference takes place at Eastwood Baptist Church, Percy St, Eastwood, Nottingham NG16 3E, on Saturday 3rd September from 10am until 5pm. Attendance is free but booking is advised.
Contact dhlfestival@gmail.com to book or find out more.
Posted on 17 August 2022
