Gleaning, Fragmentation and Environmental Writing CIMS Seminar in Environmental Humanities by Professor Timothy C Baker (Aberdeen)

The Cultural Identity and Memory Insititute welcomes everyone to join this seminar by Professor Timothy C Baker (Aberdeen) on ‘Gleaning, Fragmentation, and Environmental Writing'.

The aesthetics of fragmentation are increasingly prominent in contemporary texts, particularly in life-writing. Whether seen as reflections of a broken world or as emphasising individual expression, fragments are positioned as an alternative to earlier grand narratives. While many studies of fragmentary form have emphasised ideas of collection and synthesis, this talk proposes a model of gleaning, drawn from the films of Agnès Varda, that combines both gathering and relinquishment. Drawing on writers such as Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, Kathleen Jamie, and Karine Polwart, among others, Timothy C Baker suggests that gleaning offers a way to navigate the tension between individual and collective memory, and different scales of environmental change.