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Trees and the development of ecological understanding in the work of Beatrix Potter
Event Details
Dr Penny Bradshaw
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.
Reserve your free spot for this event here.
About the speaker
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.
About the project
This event is funded by the University of Derby and is affiliated with the collaborative project Romantic Trees: The Literary Arboretum, 1740-1840, led by Dr Amanda Blake Davis and Dr Anna Burton.
Image: Joseph Wright of Derby, Lake Scene (1790) oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art, Gift of Michael D. Coe, Yale MAH 1968 in memory of Sophie D. Coe, B2004.16.
