The University of Szczecin

May 28 – June 3

See photos from Whitman Week 2012 here.

Transatlantic Whitman Seminar: Walt Whitman’s Poetry and Its International Interpretations

In the morning classes, focusing on some of Whitman’s major poems, students had 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 were 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.

Faculty

The international instructors for 2012 were:

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

Agnieszka Salska (University of Lodz), author of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson: Poetry of the Central Consciousness.   

The afternoon translation workshops were led by Marina Camboni (University of Macerata), Mario Corona (Bergamo University), Eric Áthenot (University of Tours), Betsy Erkkila (Northwestern University), Maria Clara Bonetti Paro (University of São Paulo), Vanessa Steinroetter (Washburn University), and  Marta Skwara (University of Szczecin).

Credits were issued by the University of Szczecin. All international students lived together with their Polish colleagues and with the instructors in a University of Szczecin villa in Pobierowo (on the Baltic Coast), creating opportunities for a meaningful intercultural dialogue.

In addition to the Seminar and the Symposium, students were offered opportunities to participate in some interesting  walks to nearby scenic places (the villa was situated only 50 meters from the coast). Events included a welcome dinner and goodbye bonfire at the beach.

International Whitman Symposium: Whitman, the Earth, and Ecology

Uniwersytet Szczeciński (University of Szczecin), Pobierowo June 1-3, 2012

The symposium, titled “‘Voluptuous Cool-Breath’d Earth’: Whitman,  the Earth, and Ecology,” welcomed 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.