Work-in-Progress Seminar Series: Yu-Hung Tien, Laura Brook and Thom Pritchard In brief Date - 20 October 2023 Venue - Project Room 1.06, 50 George Square Speakers - Yu-Hung Tien, Laura Brook and Dr Thom Pritchard Abstracts John Keats, Emily Dickinson, Negative Capability by Yu-Hung Tien One of the core spirits of my thesis is to diversify with a re-examination, and to tighten with a solidification, the transatlantic literary relationships between John Keats and Emily Dickinson. The existing scholarship has displayed multiple manifestations of transatlantic poetic dynamisms between Keats and Dickinson. Other than just to further embroider such dynamisms, to consolidate them, I aim to direct my readers’ attention to re-consider one of the cores from which their literary connection might have sprouted. One question thereby arises: what criteria can be considered as making Dickinson fundamentally Keatsian? To delve into this question, I suggest we refer back to one of the features that most fundamentally (re)shapes Keats’s poetry—his conception and embodiment of “Negative Capability.” To be more specific, I exploit Dickinson’s correspondence with the particular Keatsian poetics that is often seen as a nucleus from which his writing derives. In this presentation, I outline the approach that I adopt to address the echoes of Keats’s negative capability in Dickinson. Physician, Poet, Patient: John Keats, Epistemic Violence, and Contemporary Medical Journal by Laura Brook John Keats is one of the most famous poet-physicians in history, and clinicians across the world have penned many articles about him in medical journals. Yet, these articles are frequently problematic in many ways, often perpetuating incorrect information and misleading stereotypes about Keats’s life. In my talk, I will argue that representations of Keats’s life and work in medical journals by physicians constitutes a form of epistemic injustice by centring physician knowledge at the expense of developments in other fields. I will first introduce a number of articles about Keats from high-profile medical journals, and explain some of the issues surrounding Keats scholarship produced by medical professionals. I will then explore more serious ramifications of these trends, and how circular citations between physicians in these journals reinforce misinformation and harmful tropes. Finally, I will explore counterexamples where Keats scholarship in medical journals has contributed positively to the medical humanities and medicine more widely. I will argue that much of the current representation of Keats in contemporary medical journals represents at best a negligent unwillingness to engage with developments in the medical humanities and at worst a form of epistemic violence by valuing physician-produced knowledge above all else. "In this old and last Age of the world": Witnessing Climate Change in Early Modern Europe by Dr Thom Pritchard At present, the world faces the catastrophic consequences of an unprecedented human-driven, ongoing process of global-warming. In this era of the ‘Anthropocene’, decades of research have already been dedicated to reconstructing the past climates, modelling past trends and fluctuations to better comprehend present and future directions. In the 2013 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Valérie Masson-Delmotte and Michael Schulz et al stated that despite their complicated timings and spatial structures, a complex interaction of ‘internal variability’, ‘orbital, solar and volcanic forcing’ profoundly influenced the markedly colder Little Ice Age, (LIA) (1450-1850). The deaths of approximately 55 million indigenous people in the Americas also contributed to a fall in global carbon dioxide, lowering global surface temperatures. The resulting global cooling triggered rapid, often devastating climatic fluctuations: severe floods in Barcelona, Bergen op Zoom and Bristol, The Sound, Bosphorus and Thames froze; encroaching glaciers, and hurricane strength storms hampered the Spanish Armadas; snow fell across the Mediterranean and in the sub-tropics. ‘In this old and last Age of the world’, wrote one anonymous author from London in 1613, ‘we yearly behold strange alterations of times and seasons’, where ‘terrible storms and tempests’ claim the lives of thousands. The question of how the changing climate of the LIA was understood and how it influenced the cultures of early modern Europe is ripe for exploration, building upon the research of scientists and the environmental humanities. This work in progress, comprises an overview of how the Little Ice Age permeated into my own research of the movement of people and ideas during the Thirty Years War, as well as providing a methodological overview of a proposed inter-disciplinary post doctoral project on witnessing climate change at the onset of the 17th century across Europe. About the seminar series The Work in Progress Seminar Series aims at bringing together staff, students, and the wider community to discuss and engage with the research produced by postgraduate students throughout the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures. Join us for a thriving interdisciplinary seminar and knowledge exchange event, in a relaxed and welcoming environment to develop ideas and collaborations. Refreshments will be provided at the end of each session. How to attend This event is free to attend and open to all. No registration is needed, feel free just to come along. Oct 20 2023 16.30 - 19.00 Work-in-Progress Seminar Series: Yu-Hung Tien, Laura Brook and Thom Pritchard An in-person seminar from PhD candidates in English Literature, Yu-Hung Tien and Laura Brook, and graduand Dr Thom Pritchard, on their current varied research projects. Project Room 1.06 50 George Square University of Edinburgh EH8 9LH Find the venue
Work-in-Progress Seminar Series: Yu-Hung Tien, Laura Brook and Thom Pritchard In brief Date - 20 October 2023 Venue - Project Room 1.06, 50 George Square Speakers - Yu-Hung Tien, Laura Brook and Dr Thom Pritchard Abstracts John Keats, Emily Dickinson, Negative Capability by Yu-Hung Tien One of the core spirits of my thesis is to diversify with a re-examination, and to tighten with a solidification, the transatlantic literary relationships between John Keats and Emily Dickinson. The existing scholarship has displayed multiple manifestations of transatlantic poetic dynamisms between Keats and Dickinson. Other than just to further embroider such dynamisms, to consolidate them, I aim to direct my readers’ attention to re-consider one of the cores from which their literary connection might have sprouted. One question thereby arises: what criteria can be considered as making Dickinson fundamentally Keatsian? To delve into this question, I suggest we refer back to one of the features that most fundamentally (re)shapes Keats’s poetry—his conception and embodiment of “Negative Capability.” To be more specific, I exploit Dickinson’s correspondence with the particular Keatsian poetics that is often seen as a nucleus from which his writing derives. In this presentation, I outline the approach that I adopt to address the echoes of Keats’s negative capability in Dickinson. Physician, Poet, Patient: John Keats, Epistemic Violence, and Contemporary Medical Journal by Laura Brook John Keats is one of the most famous poet-physicians in history, and clinicians across the world have penned many articles about him in medical journals. Yet, these articles are frequently problematic in many ways, often perpetuating incorrect information and misleading stereotypes about Keats’s life. In my talk, I will argue that representations of Keats’s life and work in medical journals by physicians constitutes a form of epistemic injustice by centring physician knowledge at the expense of developments in other fields. I will first introduce a number of articles about Keats from high-profile medical journals, and explain some of the issues surrounding Keats scholarship produced by medical professionals. I will then explore more serious ramifications of these trends, and how circular citations between physicians in these journals reinforce misinformation and harmful tropes. Finally, I will explore counterexamples where Keats scholarship in medical journals has contributed positively to the medical humanities and medicine more widely. I will argue that much of the current representation of Keats in contemporary medical journals represents at best a negligent unwillingness to engage with developments in the medical humanities and at worst a form of epistemic violence by valuing physician-produced knowledge above all else. "In this old and last Age of the world": Witnessing Climate Change in Early Modern Europe by Dr Thom Pritchard At present, the world faces the catastrophic consequences of an unprecedented human-driven, ongoing process of global-warming. In this era of the ‘Anthropocene’, decades of research have already been dedicated to reconstructing the past climates, modelling past trends and fluctuations to better comprehend present and future directions. In the 2013 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Valérie Masson-Delmotte and Michael Schulz et al stated that despite their complicated timings and spatial structures, a complex interaction of ‘internal variability’, ‘orbital, solar and volcanic forcing’ profoundly influenced the markedly colder Little Ice Age, (LIA) (1450-1850). The deaths of approximately 55 million indigenous people in the Americas also contributed to a fall in global carbon dioxide, lowering global surface temperatures. The resulting global cooling triggered rapid, often devastating climatic fluctuations: severe floods in Barcelona, Bergen op Zoom and Bristol, The Sound, Bosphorus and Thames froze; encroaching glaciers, and hurricane strength storms hampered the Spanish Armadas; snow fell across the Mediterranean and in the sub-tropics. ‘In this old and last Age of the world’, wrote one anonymous author from London in 1613, ‘we yearly behold strange alterations of times and seasons’, where ‘terrible storms and tempests’ claim the lives of thousands. The question of how the changing climate of the LIA was understood and how it influenced the cultures of early modern Europe is ripe for exploration, building upon the research of scientists and the environmental humanities. This work in progress, comprises an overview of how the Little Ice Age permeated into my own research of the movement of people and ideas during the Thirty Years War, as well as providing a methodological overview of a proposed inter-disciplinary post doctoral project on witnessing climate change at the onset of the 17th century across Europe. About the seminar series The Work in Progress Seminar Series aims at bringing together staff, students, and the wider community to discuss and engage with the research produced by postgraduate students throughout the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures. Join us for a thriving interdisciplinary seminar and knowledge exchange event, in a relaxed and welcoming environment to develop ideas and collaborations. Refreshments will be provided at the end of each session. How to attend This event is free to attend and open to all. No registration is needed, feel free just to come along. Oct 20 2023 16.30 - 19.00 Work-in-Progress Seminar Series: Yu-Hung Tien, Laura Brook and Thom Pritchard An in-person seminar from PhD candidates in English Literature, Yu-Hung Tien and Laura Brook, and graduand Dr Thom Pritchard, on their current varied research projects. Project Room 1.06 50 George Square University of Edinburgh EH8 9LH Find the venue
Oct 20 2023 16.30 - 19.00 Work-in-Progress Seminar Series: Yu-Hung Tien, Laura Brook and Thom Pritchard An in-person seminar from PhD candidates in English Literature, Yu-Hung Tien and Laura Brook, and graduand Dr Thom Pritchard, on their current varied research projects.
