Geology and identity in Cumbrian literature

Bradshaw, Penelope ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7240-9206 (2022) Geology and identity in Cumbrian literature. In: GeoWeek2022, 9 May 2022, Brantwood, Home of John Ruskin, Coniston, UK. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

'At bottom the Lake District is a piece of rock. It is the rock which makes the land and the land which makes the people' Norman Nicholson, Portrait of the Lakes (1963). We will read and look together at a range of poems and prose extracts which explore the importance of geology within the cultural imagination of Cumbrian writers, particularly in relation to questions of identity. Moving from Wordsworth to Ruskin, and then onto Nicholson and more recent writers, we will reflect on the ways in which Cumbrian writers have explored the idea that the identity of the Cumbrian people is fundamentally shaped by the geological underpinnings of the region they inhabit. Dr Penny Bradshaw is an Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Cumbria. She is Programme Leader for the MA in Literature, Romanticism, and the English Lake District, and is also thematic lead for Cultural Landscapes within the University’s Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas. Penny specialises in regional Romanticism and literary responses to place. Recent publications include: The Lake Poems of John Wilson (2012), Ann Radcliffe’s Observations During a Tour to the Lakes (2014), Literary Lancaster (2016), and A Literary Walking Tour of Ambleside (2021).

This workshop was part of GeoWeek2022 activities. It was one of a series of events running throughout Cumbria which celebrated Cumbria's 500-million-year-old geological history, by exploring how geology has influenced us and our heritage.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Workshop)
Departments:	Institute of Arts > Humanities
Additional Information:	Dr Penny Bradshaw, Associate Professor of English Literature, University of Cumbria, UK.
Depositing User:	Anna Lupton
Date Deposited:	29 Mar 2023 09:18
Last Modified:	13 Jan 2024 13:30
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/7014

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