Grounding a World: Essays on the Work of Kenneth White: The St. Andrews Symposium Organised by Gavin Bowd and Charles Forsdick at the University

by Gavin Bowd (Editor), Charles Forsdick, Norman Bissell (Editor)

This is the first comprehensive analysis in the English language of the work of Kenneth White, the internationally renowned Scottish poet, thinker, essayist and teacher who lives in France but considers himself a citizen of the world.

This essay-book contains fresh insights into his work by scholars and authors from Scotland, France, Morocco, Italy and England who have unrivalled knowledge of this live mind and original voice whose poetics and teachings open up a new field of culture and present a way of life founded on a sensitive and intelligent relationship to the Earth.

These essays follow Kenneth White on his journeys from the city to open country, from Scotland to South-East Asia, from Labrador to Arab lands, and explore the intellectual pathways by which he goes beyond both Western and Eastern thinking to found and ground a new world outlook.

They examine his relationship to self and creativity, shamanism and Buddhism, modernism and the literary canon, and his ability to pull the doors of the mind off their hinges and exult in grounded living.

226 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Gavin Bowd is a Scottish linguist and poet. He spent his childhood in the Scottish Borders and Hong Kong, and studied and taught in Paris and St. Andrews. He now teaches in the School of Modern Languages at the University of St Andrews.

Bowd was one of the founding directors of the StAnza poetry festival, and his poetry, fiction and translations have been widely published. He has written much on Scottish and European literature and politics, with special interests in French and Romanian politics and culture. He has published on Ian Hamilton Finlay, and Kenneth White and geopoetics.