"Blue Berries Always Surprise Us": Thoreau, Happiness and Accident

International audienceThis article explores the relations between happiness, surprise and accident in Henry David Thoreau's work. It discusses his epistemology of surprise, understood as a relational engagement with the world that constitutes a form of knowing, as well as his views of chance and accident, which he likewise sees as experiential and subjective. Thoreau's encounters with natural phenomena during his daily walks are a source of happiness, enhanced by the surprise of unexpected discoveries, and despite undeniable personal grief, Thoreau's writing abounds with expressions of sincere enjoyment.Cet article explore les relations entre le bonheur, la surprise et l’accident dans l’œuvre de Henry David Thoreau. Il aborde son épistémologie de la surprise, envisagée comme un engagement relationnel avec le monde qui constitue une forme de connaissance, ainsi que ses idées sur le hasard et l’accident, qui pour lui reposent également sur l’expérience subjective. Ses rencontres avec les phénomènes naturels lors de ses promenades quotidiennes sont une source de bonheur, renforcé par la surprise : malgré son indéniable expérience de deuil, les écrits de Thoreau regorgent d’expressions de joie sincère

International Symposium: “Thoreau from across the Pond”

In honor of Henry David Thoreau’s 200th birthday in 2017, a three-day international symposium took place at the ENS de Lyon in October, organized by Julien Nègre (ENS de Lyon), François Specq (ENS de Lyon) and Laura Dassow Walls (University of Notre Dame). It featured 19 Thoreau specialists from around the world, bringing a wealth of perspectives and yielding rich discussions on current issues in Thoreau studies. The three keynote speakers, Branka Arsić (Columbia University), William Rossi (U..

Julien Nègre, L’arpenteur vagabond. Cartes et cartographies dans l’œuvre de Henry David Thoreau

This is quite a beautiful book, both in its elegant prose and its color reproduction of many maps consulted or created by Thoreau. Its style is clear and eloquent and its structure limpid. The short introduction distinguishes it from Robert F. Stowell’s The Thoreau Gazetteer (1970), which collects many of the maps relevant to Thoreau’s life, in that the earlier book simply reproduces the maps without explicit commentary, whereas the present volume intends to clarify and theorize the role play..

La musique du XXe siècle, la morphogenèse goethéenne et le hasard

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« Give me a culture that imports much muck from the meadows » : Thoreau, le « sauvage » et la « culture »

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Review of Michael Patrick Gillespie, The Aesthetics of Chaos: Nonlinear Thinking and Contemporary Literary Criticism

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