INTO THE WILD WOODS: EXISTENTIAL RESPONSES TO TURBULENT TIMES
Annual Conference of the worldwide EXISTENTIAL MOVEMENT
With Online Events, on Friday 27 and 28 September 2024
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Each of us is currently confronted with the very serious existential challenges of the climate emergency, social division and unrest, and the pervasive threat of global war. This crisis reverberates in our personal lives in many profound ways, and it can feel a bit like being lost in the Wild Woods as we are confronted with previously hidden threats and fears and lose our usual sources of solace and sanctuary.
This conference will bring together ideas and insights from philosophers and therapists whose work can illuminate our quest for clarity and directionality, to safely get through these turbulent times.
Four keynote speakers and four invited speakers, as well as many other presenters from all over the world, will dazzle you with new ideas, sizzling discussions and debates and many wise thoughts that will light your way.
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INTO THE WILD WOODS
The phrase ‘the Wild Woods’ is likely to resonate with many of you. It will be familiar if you were introduced as a child to ‘The Wind in the Willows’, the classic novel by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908 and based on bedtime stories Grahame told his son Alastair. In this book we meet four woodland characters, Mole, Ratty, Toad and Badger, who are confronted by the perils and challenges of what we existential therapists would today term ‘problems of living’. Ostensibly a children’s book, the reason why it has endured and has appealed to a wider audience for more than a century is largely because, like all great literature, its central concern – conveyed anthropomorphically – is what it means to be human.
You are probably aware of the phrase littérature engagée, coined by Sartre after the Second World War to describe literature intended to promote social and political change through direct engagement with contemporary issues. ‘The Wind in the Willows’ conveys our own struggles and search for meaning indirectly, but no less powerfully, through the travails and experiences of its small cast of animal friends. We may empathise with Mole’s introversion, Ratty’s pragmatism, Toad’s pursuit of novelty and technological innovation, or Badger’s hermit-like but hospitable self-sufficiency, and we come to understand how each strategy enables them to create meaningful lives.
While these individual worlds appear bucolic and idyllic, they are boundaried and overshadowed by the ominously named ‘the Wild Wood’ and its malevolent denizens, the weasels, stoats and ferrets, who pose a constant threat. Only by collaborating with each other can the friends find the strength and courage to resist and prevail. Viewed through an existential lens, we might say that the lessons of ‘The Wind in the Willows’ are as relevant to us today than they have ever been. The early years of the twentieth century were marked by cultural insecurity and political turmoil which led to the First World War. Now, in the foothills of the twenty-first century, we are beset by numerous challenges, including climate emergency, social division and unrest, and the pervasive threat of global war.
We might wonder whether literature can provide any comfort or guidance at such a time; I want to suggest that ‘The Wind in the Willows’ does offer an interesting perspective on how we can respond to these turbulent times. The operative term in our conference title is ‘Into’: the band of animal friends make the difficult decision to go into the Wild Wood. It is in making this active choice that they discover their courage and their resilience. Existence precedes essence – they create themselves, as we existentialists term it, in action.
Choosing to act can, though, feel daunting. This is particularly the case when we despair or feel overwhelmed. It often seems easier to deny our freedom to choose ourselves. Instead we can ‘choose not to choose’, we can follow the herd. How, then, inspired by this novel, can we confront rather than attempt to evade these turbulent times – how can we venture into the Wild Woods?
Each of us is currently confronted with the very serious existential challenges of the climate emergency, social division and unrest, and the pervasive threat of global war. This crisis reverberates in our personal lives in many profound ways, and it can feel a bit like being lost in the Wild Woods as we are confronted with previously hidden threats and fears and lose our usual sources of solace and sanctuary.
This conference will bring together ideas and insights from philosophers and therapists whose work can illuminate our quest for clarity and directionality, to safely get through these turbulent times.
Four keynote speakers and four invited speakers, as well as many other presenters from all over the world, will dazzle you with new ideas, sizzling discussions and debates and many wise thoughts that will light your way.
SPEAKER DETAILS TO FOLLOW..
