7th Dec 2011 4:30pm-5:30pm
C122 Lecture Theatre, Checkland Building, Falmer
'Why Shamanism? Reflections on the Return of a Repressed Archetype (with reference to the work of Ted Hughes, Tomas Transtromer and Kenneth White)'
Prof Michael Tucker
School of Humanities
University of Brighton
Abstract
There has been a strong cross-disciplinary revival of interest today in the phenomenon of shamanism: the pre-Judeao-Christian, animistic cultivation of ecstatic states of consciousness outlined by the historian of religions, Mircea Eliade in his classic study, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.
The paper/presentation argues that a creative awareness of the pattern(s) or poetics of shamanic consciousness can shed fructifying light on key developments in romantic, modern, and contemporary Western art culture and argues its case with particular reference to the work of poets and writers Ted Hughes, Tomas Transtromer, and Kenneth White.
Bio
Michael Tucker, D Litt, is Professor of Poetics in the School of Humanities, University of Brighton. A contributor to Grove Dictionary of Art, he has published widely in the fields of visual art, music and poetry, including Dreaming With Open Eyes: The Shamanic Spirit In 20th-Century Art & Culture (1992), Alan Davie: The Quest For The Miraculous (1993), Jan Garbarek: Deep Song (1998), Dream Traces: A Celebration of Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art (2003), Grounding A World: Essays on the Work of Kenneth White (2005), Eye Music (2007), Andrzej Jackowski: The Remembered Present (2009) and Ian McKeever: Paintings (2009). He has been invited to lecture at many universities and arts institutions across Europe including Scandinavia and the UK.
