Announcing that next month, from the 13th to 15th of May, the University of Białystok, Poland will be hosting the 12th Annual Conference of the European Beat Studies Network, on the topic “The Beats – Wilderness and Wildness”
This conference, the conference organizers write, “will probe the extent to which Beat aesthetics retains its relevance in the Anthropocene by comparing and contrasting it with contemporary eco-narratives that center on the pressing immediacy of the current biodiversity crisis and the looming environmental collapse. The growingly apparent and dramatic effects of climate change lend a sense of timeliness to interrogating Beat texts in search of understanding the human impact on the global environment and seeking ways of maintaining environmental sustainability”
The conference will also “reassess the potential and relevance of “wildness” within the framework of Beat aesthetics, thinking back to Henry David Thoreau’s idea that “in Wildness is the preservation of the World. . . . In literature it is only the wild that attracts us (and) dullness is but another name for tameness.”
“In the spirit of the above,” the organizers note, “the conference will feature a guided trip to Białowieża National Park. One of the most biodiverse spots on the continent and home to the largest population of Europe’s biggest wild land mammals – the European bisons – the Białowieża forest will give participants a unique opportunity to experience the richness of one of the last primeval forests in Europe, with its rare flora, array of wildlife and picturesque landscapes.”
