Seminar in Romance Languages: Capstone Course

Fall 2023: Ecology and Poetry: Italy in Global Conversation

There is a special connection between poetry and nature. Recently, however, poets have become the voice of the vulnerable beings and crises that affect our planet. They speak about disappearing animals and landscapes; migrations, justice, and democracy; how wars and conflicts affect places and their memory. This is “ecopoetry,” and it invites to a reflection on the challenges that societies are called to face. This course will explore how contemporary poetry provides a terrain for this challenge. Our focus will be on Italy, but we will interlace a tight and fruitful conversation with other European countries, and expand the gaze on a global horizon. Among our guest lectures there will be prominent poets and scholars, and we will work in collaboration with UNESCO and the European Festival of Environmental Poetry.