Το Κέντρον Ερεύνης της Ελληνικής και Λατινικής Γραμματείας της Ακαδημίας Αθηνών σας προσκαλεί στη διαδικτυακή διάλεξη του Didier Natalizi Baldi (Οξφόρδη) με τίτλο «‘De la scheggia rotta…parole e sangue’. The fractured boundaries of bleeding plants in Latin and Classical Chinese literature». Η διάλεξη θα πραγματοποιηθεί την Δευτέρα 8 Ιουνίου στις 15.00.
Περίληψη
Bleeding trees are monstrous, chimeric beings: they display the outward appearance of plants but possess something viscerally human, blood. This paper, by examining texts spanning different genres and periods, attempts to draw a comparative typology of bleeding plants in Latin and Classical Chinese literature. It analyses instances in which this portent is interpreted purely as a (negative) omen, cases in which it represents the consequence of a spiritual quality or presence harboured in the tree, as well as instances in which it prompts explicit reflection on the nature of humans and plants. Throughout, it argues that bleeding plants embody a fracture in the boundary of sense, separating the human I from the natural other. Thus, by glaringly revealing the inadequacy of human categories of rational differentiation, they create a monstrous threat to our edifice of sense; and yet, for the same reason, they also offer a unique occasion to ponder again on what makes us human.
Ηλ. Διεύθυνση επικοινωνίας για τον σύνδεσμο ΖΟΟΜ: mkonaris@academyofathens.gr