Agriculture Dwelling The Georgic Tradition and Animal Studies

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Agriculture, ”Dwelling”, The Georgic Tradition and Animal Studies Literature and Nature University of Helsinki/

Agriculture, ”Dwelling”, The Georgic Tradition and Animal Studies Literature and Nature University of Helsinki/ Comparative Literature 4. 11. 2014 M. A. Pekka Raittinen

Hesiod: Works and Days � Lived circa 650 to 750 BC. in the hamlet

Hesiod: Works and Days � Lived circa 650 to 750 BC. in the hamlet of Ascra, near Mount Helicon � Also Theogony, ”The genealogy or birth of the gods” � Erga kai hamerai; socalled didactic poetry and the annual labours of the farmer

Hesiod’s life lessons to his ”prodigal brother”: ” But do you at any rate,

Hesiod’s life lessons to his ”prodigal brother”: ” But do you at any rate, always remembering my charge, work, high-born Perses, that Hunger may hate you, and venerable Demeter richly crowned may love you and fill your barn with food; for Hunger is altogether a meet comrade for the sluggard. Both gods and men are angry with a man who lives idle, for in nature he is like the stingless drones who waste the labour of the bees, eating without working; […]”

A Farmer’s Year; Cycle of the Seasons: ”When the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas, are

A Farmer’s Year; Cycle of the Seasons: ”When the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas, are rising , begin your harvest, and your ploughing when they are going to set”

Virgil: Georgics Hexameter epic, four books � Like Hesiod, V. stresses the importance of

Virgil: Georgics Hexameter epic, four books � Like Hesiod, V. stresses the importance of hard work � Roman agriculture and animal husbandry ; olive gardens, forests, fruits etc. � Idealized society of bees versus the political chaos preceding the Octavian age �

The Georgic Tradition � In 18 th century English literature � Thomas Jefferson: Notes

The Georgic Tradition � In 18 th century English literature � Thomas Jefferson: Notes on the State of Virginia (1787) � James Thompson: The Seasons (1793) � ”The Bean Field” chapter of Thoreu’s Walden � Wendell Berry

The Georgic Tradition in Finland? � The trope of ”the good peasant” beginning with

The Georgic Tradition in Finland? � The trope of ”the good peasant” beginning with J. L. Runeberg’s Farmer Paavo (Saarijärven Paavo) � Aleksis Kivi’s Seitsemän veljestä and poetry � Arvid Järnefelt � Free yeoman versus the smallholder

”Dwelling” => [to] dwell � 1. If you dwell on something, especially unpleasant, you

”Dwelling” => [to] dwell � 1. If you dwell on something, especially unpleasant, you think, speak, or write about it for a long time. ’I’d rather not dwell on the past’, he told me. � 2. If you dwell somewhere, you live there, a formal use. Shiva is a dark god; he dwells in the mountains and deserts. � 3. See also dwelling. =>

Dwelling =a = building or other place to live in; place of residence; abode.

Dwelling =a = building or other place to live in; place of residence; abode. � In ecocritical context connotates not only habitation, but also a deeper connection to ”the land” � Agriculture, ancestry, tradition etc. � The discontinuity of the modern age=> We can no longer know, where we are to be be buried

Heidegger’s ”Dwelling” � ”On the Origin of the Work of Art” (1935) � Bauen

Heidegger’s ”Dwelling” � ”On the Origin of the Work of Art” (1935) � Bauen = ”to build” � Van Gogh’s A Pair of Shoes; belongs to ”the earth” and ”the world” � Criticism: Heidegger’s thought and Blud und Boden ideology of the Nazi party

The Ecological Indian (Greg Garrard) � “The Georgic model of dwelling is of diminishing

The Ecological Indian (Greg Garrard) � “The Georgic model of dwelling is of diminishing relevance for most North Americans and Europeans. ” (Garrard) � Idealized version of Native Americans in popular culture et al. � Animistic worldview and relation to nature

Animal studies �A new(ish) field of study in the humanities and social sciences �

Animal studies �A new(ish) field of study in the humanities and social sciences � Peter Singer (1975): Animal Liberation � Animal versus human � Domestic versus wild animals

Donna Haraway (1991) ’A Cybord Manifesto´ Man versus machine contra man versus animal?

Donna Haraway (1991) ’A Cybord Manifesto´ Man versus machine contra man versus animal?