Mat R K Osmond | Falmouth University (original) (raw)
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Papers by Mat R K Osmond
As Marina Warner observes in her introduction to its 2004 Vintage Classics edition, Coleridge’s l... more As Marina Warner observes in her introduction to its 2004 Vintage Classics edition, Coleridge’s life-long obsession with themes of enchantment comes to one of its fullest expressions in his 1798 poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In this paper I consider how that theme of enchantment has been interpreted by two of The Rime’s later adaptations, both of them childrens’ books: C.S. Lewis’ 1952 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and Ted Hughes 1993 The Iron Woman. My discussion of these three stories, and of the mutating theme of enchantment that runs through them, relies heavily on Hughes’ 1993 essay The Snake in the Oak, in which he offers an empathic critical interpretation of the spiritual crisis that both cut off, and was eloquently mapped within, Coleridge’s 'three great poems'. For Hughes, The Rime’s hallucinatory enchantment is seen as a necessary and curative descent - a visionary encounter which briefly prises loose the dead grip of the protagonist’s – and the author’s – human centred worldview. The mode of enchantment that Hughes presents us with, here, is far from the solipsistic lapse into self-suggestion caricatured in C.S. Lewis’ sermon. Rather, it’s that universally recorded process of involuntary descent which characterises a shamanic calling.
The desire to foster empathy in our relations with the non-human world forms a pervasive theme wi... more The desire to foster empathy in our relations with the non-human world forms a pervasive theme within creative arts practice that sets out to address environmental crisis. In this paper I consider two recent graphic novels that attempt this - Derrick Jensen’s and Stephanie McMillan’s 'As the World Burns: 50 simple things you can do to stay in denial' (Seven Stories Press 2007), and Nick Hayes’ 'The Rime of the Modern Mariner' (Jonathan Cape 2011). In doing so, I want to ask what addressing ecological crisis by ‘fostering empathy’ might or might not mean, what that has to do with art and story, and what, against the backdrop of a global ecological crisis that increasingly overshadows local environmentalisms, one might be hoping to achieve by doing it. In particular, and borrowing the notion of beautiful soul syndrome from Timothy Morton, I want to consider what value there might be in responding to ecocide by telling – and more importantly, by being told – stories.
Books by Mat R K Osmond
In Other Tongues, 2018
Collection of chapters emerging from the 'In Other Tongues' conference, 2017. Broad-ranging contr... more Collection of chapters emerging from the 'In Other Tongues' conference, 2017. Broad-ranging contributions exploring the nature of language, non-human narratives and communications, and include a number of experimental written pieces.
As Marina Warner observes in her introduction to its 2004 Vintage Classics edition, Coleridge’s l... more As Marina Warner observes in her introduction to its 2004 Vintage Classics edition, Coleridge’s life-long obsession with themes of enchantment comes to one of its fullest expressions in his 1798 poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In this paper I consider how that theme of enchantment has been interpreted by two of The Rime’s later adaptations, both of them childrens’ books: C.S. Lewis’ 1952 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and Ted Hughes 1993 The Iron Woman. My discussion of these three stories, and of the mutating theme of enchantment that runs through them, relies heavily on Hughes’ 1993 essay The Snake in the Oak, in which he offers an empathic critical interpretation of the spiritual crisis that both cut off, and was eloquently mapped within, Coleridge’s 'three great poems'. For Hughes, The Rime’s hallucinatory enchantment is seen as a necessary and curative descent - a visionary encounter which briefly prises loose the dead grip of the protagonist’s – and the author’s – human centred worldview. The mode of enchantment that Hughes presents us with, here, is far from the solipsistic lapse into self-suggestion caricatured in C.S. Lewis’ sermon. Rather, it’s that universally recorded process of involuntary descent which characterises a shamanic calling.
The desire to foster empathy in our relations with the non-human world forms a pervasive theme wi... more The desire to foster empathy in our relations with the non-human world forms a pervasive theme within creative arts practice that sets out to address environmental crisis. In this paper I consider two recent graphic novels that attempt this - Derrick Jensen’s and Stephanie McMillan’s 'As the World Burns: 50 simple things you can do to stay in denial' (Seven Stories Press 2007), and Nick Hayes’ 'The Rime of the Modern Mariner' (Jonathan Cape 2011). In doing so, I want to ask what addressing ecological crisis by ‘fostering empathy’ might or might not mean, what that has to do with art and story, and what, against the backdrop of a global ecological crisis that increasingly overshadows local environmentalisms, one might be hoping to achieve by doing it. In particular, and borrowing the notion of beautiful soul syndrome from Timothy Morton, I want to consider what value there might be in responding to ecocide by telling – and more importantly, by being told – stories.
In Other Tongues, 2018
Collection of chapters emerging from the 'In Other Tongues' conference, 2017. Broad-ranging contr... more Collection of chapters emerging from the 'In Other Tongues' conference, 2017. Broad-ranging contributions exploring the nature of language, non-human narratives and communications, and include a number of experimental written pieces.