René Char and the Place of the Poet in the Politics of Nature-Thursday, February 9 @ 4:30-Haldeman 125

In an age of environmental disasters, many have called to include the nonhuman (animals, plants, ecosystems as a whole) amongst the stakeholders whose interests must be taken into account in policy decisions. One of the most vocal thinkers proposing a new constitution of the body politic was the French philosopher Bruno Latour, whose Politiques de la Nature not only proposes listening to the nonhuman but gives tasks to various groups of people in the work of taking the nonhuman into account, including scientists and statisticians. However, through the writing of René Char, we are able to glimpse a role for the poet as well, practicing what he calls "attunement" to the natural world. How does the work of a surrealist poet give us insight into our interaction with our environment?