Vegetal Poetics:
Narrating Plants in Culture and History
Click here to read the conference report.
International conference of the Literary and Cultural Plant Studies Network
in cooperation with Deutsches Hygiene-Museum
June 6-8, 2019, Dresden, Germany
Venue: Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden, Lingnerplatz 1
Organizers & Contact:
Solvejg Nitzke (Technical University Dresden, solvejg.nitzke@tu-dresden.de)
Joela Jacobs (University of Arizona, joelajacobs@arizona.edu)
Isabel Kranz (Vienna University, isabel.kranz@univie.ac.at)
Thursday, June 6 (Vorlesungssaal of the Museum)
1pm: Guided Tour through exhibit “People and Plants” with curator Kathrin Meyer (for panelists, meeting in the lobby of the museum
2:30pm: Welcome Address (Joela Jacobs, Isabel Kranz, Solvejg Nitzke)
3–4:30pm: Political Gardens (Joela Jacobs)
- Andrée-Anne Kekeh-Dika (University of Paris 8): Jamaica Kincaid’s Writings, or the Possibilities of “Green”
- Christine Gerhardt (University of Bamberg): “My Jungle fronts on Wall Street”: The Plant Politics of Emily Dickinson’s Exotic Gardens
4:30pm: Coffee Break
5–6:30pm: Plant Potentials (Isabel Kranz)
- Helga Braunbeck (North Carolina State University): Writing Trees and Chasing Spirits: Marion Poschmann’s and Esther Kinsky’s Third Nature Poetics
- Eva Axer (Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research): Metamorphosis of Plants 2.0: Exploring the Time Scale of Literary Narratives and the “Deep Time” of Plants
7-8:30pm: Reading and Discussion with Sabine Scho: “Pflanzen erzählen – Pflanzen zwischen Wissenschaft und Dichtung” with Solvejg Nitzke, Isabel Kranz, and Joela Jacobs
This is a public event taking place in German. Panelists are invited to attend or take a break.
Friday, June 7 (Martha-Fraenkel Saal, Conference Center of the Museum)
9–10:30am: Literary Botanies (Joela Jacobs)
- Rachel Bouvet (University of Quebec at Montreal)
and Stephanie Posthumus (McGill University): The Botanical Imaginary - Oliver Völker (Goethe University Frankfurt): Intricate Plants and Figures of Growth in Alfred Döblin‘s Writings
10:30am: Coffee Break
11am–12:30pm: Arboreal Poetics (Nicole Thesz)
- Patrícia Vieira (University of Coimbra): The Amazonian Rainforest in Literature, Cinema and Art
- Susan McHugh (University of New England): Forest Thinking in Contemporary Environmentalist Film and Fiction
12:30pm: Lunch
2–3:30pm: Vegetal Temporalities (Isabel Kranz)
- Klara Schubenz (University of Mainz): On Stifter‘s Law of Gradualness
- Robert Barrett (University of Illinois): The Vegetal Temporality of Medieval British Drama
3:30pm: Coffee Break
4–5:30pm: Vegetal Agencies (Solvejg Nitzke)
- Giulia Pacini (College of William & Mary): Saving the Body Politic: Ensuring the Flow of Tree Sap in French Revolutionary Discourse
- Ragnild Lome (Linköping University): Imaginations of Plant Agency in the 1950s and 60s: Readings of the Short Story Trapperne by Cecil Bødker and the Radio Play The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
6–7pm: Reading and Discussion with Christian Lehnert: “Narrating Plants – Plants between Science and Poetry” with Solvejg Nitzke, Isabel Kranz, and Joela Jacobs
This is a public event taking place in German. English translations will be provided. Panelists are invited to attend or take a break.
8pm: Conference Dinner (for panelists)
Saturday, June 8 (Martha-Fraenkel Saal, Conference Center of the Museum)
9–10:30am: Plant Bodies (Solvejg Nitzke)
- Alessandro Buccheri (LabEx haStec/Centre Jean Pépin): Talking about Plants in Ancient Greek Poetry and Medicine: A Dialogue between Homer and Hippocrates
- Pamela MacKenzie (University of British Columbia): The Hand, the Eye, the Microscope and the Knife in Nehemiah Grew’s Anatomy of Plants (1682)
10:30am: Coffee Break
11am–12:30pm: Romantic Plants (Christina Becher)
Anke Kramer (University of Siegen): Dynamic Plants in Tieck’s Phantasus- Michael Bies (Free University Berlin): Vegetal Life, Vegetal Poetics, and Goethe’s Novella
12:30pm: Lunch
1:30–-3pm: Plant Palpations (Frederike Middelhoff)
- Jana Kittelmann (University Halle-Wittenberg): “Amor unit plantas”: Plants as Actors in 18th-Century Idyll and Love Poetry
- Maren Mayer-Schwieger (Leuphana University Lüneburg): Phytotaxis: Getting in Touch with Climbing Plants
3pm: Coffee Break
3:30pm: Concluding Remarks (Joela Jacobs, Isabel Kranz, Solvejg Nitzke)
The conference is supported by Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden, Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, and Technische Universität Dresden. This project is part of TU Dresden’s Institutional Strategy, funded by the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal and State Governments.