Trees and the development of ecological understanding in the work of Beatrix Potter

Bradshaw, Penelope ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7240-9206 (2024) Trees and the development of ecological understanding in the work of Beatrix Potter. In: The Literary Arboretum, 20 July 2024, Wordsworth Grasmere, UK. (Unpublished) Full text not available from this repository.

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Abstract

In 2017 the Lake District National Park was awarded UNESCO World Heritage Status as a ‘Cultural Landscape’ and the nomination document presents the region as the ‘cradle of deep ecology’. The role of writers (and especially William Wordsworth) in developing the seeds of environmental thinking is made clear but when the document turns to Beatrix Potter the narrative is more ambiguous. She is granted slightly less than a page of commentary and this focuses almost exclusively on her contribution to conservation by way of her bequest of land and property to the National Trust. While the handling of other literary figures results in analysis of their writings and the ideas contained within them, Potter’s ecological credentials in relation to her children’s books are not emphasised. This talk will suggest, however, that Potter’s work often engages her child reader with ecological perspectives and Potter’s imaginative treatment of trees plays a key part in this process. Potter biographers have suggested that she had a ‘lifelong fascination’ with trees (Lear, 2008) and this talk will consider representations of trees in the ‘little books’ and in her late work, The Fairy Caravan (1929), to explore the ways in which trees are used by Potter to develop what we would now perceive as an ecological awareness and understanding in her child readers. This is part of the Literary Arboretum day of free events at Wordsworth Grasmere. Dr Penny Bradshaw is an Associate Professor of Literature at the University of Cumbria and is currently writing a book on Beatrix Potter for Bloomsbury Academic. Penny is programme leader for the MA Literature, Romanticism, and the Lake District (on which Potter’s work is studied) and theme lead for ‘Cultural Landscapes’ within the University’s research Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Keynote)
Departments:	Institute of Arts > Humanities Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas (CNPPA)
Depositing User:	Anna Lupton
Date Deposited:	18 Sep 2024 09:17
Last Modified:	18 Sep 2024 09:29
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/7768