"The Word Made Strange": Seminar and Talk on Jones with the Eighth Day Institute

Just Recently we were sent info of a seminar that took place this past December on the topic of Jones, Chesterton and Auden on Incarnation. Find a summary below. The image, clearly inspired by Jones's own art, is an original inscription by Dr. Gaelan Gilbert of St. Katherine University.  

"A David Jones seminar was held as a one-day event on December 9 at the Eighth Day Institute (EDI) in Wichita KS. A group of about 8 academics/artists prepared for the seminar by reading selections of Jones work and studying several of his paintings and painted inscriptions. The group enjoyed approx. 4-5 hours of presentation and discussion focusing on several themes in Jones' work: 1) the idea of the availability (or non-availability) of certain words for poetic deployment, and the accompanying question of what the role and work of a poet is in the modern world, whether a "plank in the bridge between past and present" as Jones said, and/or something else; 2) the question of the relationship between art/poesis & sacrament as explored in Jones' essay of that name and the "Christmas Message from 1960"; 3) the role of poetry/art in responding to and finding something redeemable in the suffering of trauma or war (contra Adorno's statement that "poetry is not possible after Auschwitz"), specifically in In Parenthesis; and 4) theological themes related to the Incarnation of the Logos as it is explored in Anathemata and The Sleeping Lord. 

The seminar's hosting institution, the Eighth Day Institute, is dedicated to "the renewal of culture through faith and learning." At a later event, on December 28, the EDI Christmas Feast, a talk entitled 'The Word Made Strange' was delivered on themes of incarnation and defamiliarization in the poetry of Jones, Chesterton, and Auden. The header image for this piece is a work of word art I made that was inspired by Jones, also on the theme of Christmas/the Incarnation. It incorporates excerpts from Jones' poetry (specifically "The Sleeping Lord" and Anathemata), biblical scriptures, and liturgical texts. Work is continuing on a second, accompanying Jones-esque word art piece on a Paschal theme. For more info about this seminar or the delivered talk, please write to Dr Gaelan Gilbert, Visiting Professor of Arts & Humanities at the University of Saint Katherine, at [email protected].

You can also find more information about this talk here: www.eighthdayinstitute.org/the-word-made-strange

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