The power of the fable as a tool to help society think differently about climate change, AI and other pressing global challenges is being celebrated this week at an event hosted by the School of Humanities.
The Rethinking Fables in the Age of the Environmental Crisis conference marks the end of a two-year initiative of the same name which has brought together scholars, animal experts, artists, theorists, and ‘fabulists’ to examine the significance of animal (and other nonhuman) fables, and develop new theories and practices of the genre. Supported by funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the conference will culminate in a free public event at the Gulbenkian Theatre which promises an evening of fun and experimental fable storytelling.
Fables often feature talking animals and non-humans, presenting opportunities for fabulists and their audiences to give a voice to the non-human forces that shape our world. As part of the two-year project, Dr Kaori Nagai has led a number of fable-themed workshops where participants have used this ancient literary genre to explore their relationships with modern issues such as scientific advancement, global politics and climate change.
The conference will build on this engagement activity by bringing together, consolidating, and further developing the fable storytelling network. Keynote speakers include Professor Vinciane Despret, the philosopher of science and author of What Would Animals Say If We Asked the Right Questions (2016) and Professor Susan McHugh, the author of Love in a Time of Slaughters: Human-Animal Stories Against Extinction and Genocide (2019).
The storytelling event will feature Suniti Namjoshi, the distinguished fabulist and author of The Blue Donkey Fables (1988), Aesop the Fox (2018) and many other fables. She will be joined by poets Kathryn Kirkpatrick and Cass Lynch, who will share ‘fables’ written for this project, the folklorist Terefe Mitiku, telling a traditional fable from Ethiopia, and the zoo-musicologists Emily Doolittle and Alex South who have produced a fable-in-music in collaboration with the poet Lesley Harrison.
Tickets for Rethinking Fables in the Age of the Environmental Crisis: A Storytelling Event are available to book for free on the Gulbenkian website.