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"Encounter before imagination": a more-than-human poetics from the Moss Valley JEFFREY, Andrew Available from the Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA) at: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/28089/ A Sheffield Hallam University thesis This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Please visit http://shura.shu.ac.uk/28089/ and http://shura.shu.ac.uk/information.html for further details about copyright and re-use permissions. “ENCOUNTER B E F O R E IMAGINATION:” A MORE-THAN-HUMAN POETICS FROM THE MOSS VALLEY Andrew Gordon Jeffrey June 2019 A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Sheffield Hallam University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 1 I hereby declare that: 1. I have not been enrolled for another award of the University, or other academic or profes- sional organisation, whilst undertaking my research degree. 2. None of the material contained in the thesis has been used in any other submission for an academic award. 3. I am aware of and understand the University’s policy on plagiarism and certify that this thesis is my own work. The use of all published or other sources of material consulted have been properly and fully acknowledged. 4. The work undertaken towards the thesis has been conducted in accordance with the SHU Principles of Integrity in Research and the SHU Research Ethics Policy. Name Andrew Gordon Jeffrey Date June 2019 Award PhD. Faculty Social Sciences and Humanities Director(s) of Studies Dr Harriet Tarlo 2 Introduction Chapter Two - Shame-an-ism Chapter Five - Following the Moss Chapter One - Entrances and Origins Perturbation 36 In Eos 76 Entrances and Origins 22 Is a Forest 38 Sourced 77 Oak Gall 23 Did it Look 40 Testing 79 Mattress Seasons 25 Went Through 41 Crevice 80 Acknowledgements Brook 81 Picture Skew 26 Spoke To 42 Flickr 27 Heft 83 Why Do 43 Indefensible Space 28 Drilling Down 84 Humans Get 44 THERE ARE LOTS OF PEOPLE TO THANK WHO HAVE BEEN PART Tansy 29 Ore 86 OF THIS JOURNEY THROUGH MOSS VALLEY. Business Cycle 30 Mine End 87 FIRST OF ALL I’D LIKE TO THANK MY SUPERVISORS HARRIET Sit Well 31 Chapter Three - Troway Honey Trail B6056 Ongoing 88 TARLO AND CHRIS JONES FOR THEIR MORE-THAN-HUMAN PATIENCE AND SUPPORT OVER THE LAST FOUR YEARS. THEY’VE Seldom Seen 32 Please Phone if Lost 46 Where 89 BEEN ENCOURAGING, THOUGHT PROVOKING AND WISE. Birley Hay 33 Reasonableness 90 Awaiting for Attacks By Mammals 47 EACH CHAPTER OF THIS WORK HAS SOME PARTICULAR THANKS Watch Out For 34 Propolis is This? 50 DUE. CHAPTER 1 COULDN’T HAVE BEEN PRODUCED WITHOUT Their Language 51 THE SUPPORT OF THE MOSS VALLEY USERS GROUP WHO MEET Chapter Six - A Reader’s Pre-Digest IN COAL ASTON. Jarring 52 [crossing drystone] 94 CHAPTER 2 RELIES UPON MY EARLY MEMORIES OF BEING TAKEN Chrismiss List 53 THROUGH THE MOSS VALLEY BY OLIVER BLENSDORF WHO HAS [white chords] 97 Lured (Almost Seduced) 54 PROVIDED MANY CONTACTS AND INVALUABLE NATURAL HISTO- Scaly Earthball 98 Banana Aroma 55 RY EXPERTISE. Artist’s Fungus 100 CHAPTER 3 BENEFITED FROM CONVERSATIONS WITH BARBARA Now Solvent 56 HAVERHAND, OWNER OF MEDIBEE. ALSO THANKS TO DANCER Dead Moll’s Fingers 101 All That Is 57 LUCY SAM-HAIGHTON FOR INVITING ME TO COLLABORATE AS Hairy Curtain Crust 103 Tell the Tale 58 PART OF HER RUIDO PROJECT. Sulphur Tuft 104 CHAPTER 4 BENEFITED FROM THE MOSS VALLEY STABLES A Sweet Disorder 59 [my weaver away] 108 GRANTING ACCESS. Topical 60 CHAPTER 5 INCLUDES THE RESULT OF RECORDING EXCURSIONS [on mouth] 109 Crouch 61 WITH THE MOSS VALLEY WILDLIFE GROUP. [crowd here] 110 CHAPTER 6 USES FIELDWORK GATHERED ON MUSHROOM WALKS [colon is eyes] 111 WITH MICHAEL (ZIGGY) SENKANS AS GUIDE. Chapter Four - Horse Opera [spear achre] 112 ABI GOODMAN PROVIDED EXPERT TECHNICAL AND LAYOUT SUPPORT AS WELL AS ALWAYS ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS Horse Opera 63 [out] 113 AND LUCY JEFFREY’S VOICE AND WRITING (AGED 3-5) APPEARS Sleep Standing 64 THREADED THROUGHOUT. Tatty and Lotty 65 Medusa 66 114 To See Through Run Through 77 Bibliography Skittish 68 Drawn 69 Opera 70 Adam’s Ale 71 Clever Hans 73 Turin Fall 74 3 Abstract This hybrid creative/critical work of poetry and prose is laid out in three site as a way of exploring contemporary environmental ley’s ancient woodlands whilst tracking various creatures. columns so that open form poetry, literary criticism and theoretical re- issues by being based upon fieldwork in the Moss Valley, Chapter 3 is based at Troway Hall which is the home of a flection can share the same page space. This enables the writing to -em which is located on the border between South Yorkshire longstanding beekeeping concern. Chapter 4 considers the body tensions and entanglements in response to the following research and Derbyshire. The poems are based upon particular writer’s phobia of and encounters with horses to explore is- questions: encounters; criticism and theoretical reflections act as a sues of classification and projection. Chapter 5 records an 1. How can avant-garde and experimental writing techniques be used to poetics, enabling further thinking, research and contex- attempt to trace the Moss Brook from source to confluence. encounter the more-than-human? tualisation. It shows that avant-garde and experimental Chapter 6 is based upon mushroom recording walks in the 2. Can experimental writing techniques enable a writer to point beyond writing techniques can be used to encounter the more- Moss Valley and tries to write from the perspective of fungi. language? than-human using the concept of chora to explore how The writers Colin Simms, Maggie O’Sullivan and Helen 3. Does an open form poem enable writing about the more-than-human writing can point beyond language, crossing disciplinary Macdonald are considered as poets who model ways of to be more ecologically minded? and cultural boundaries. Open form poems enable a entangling human and natural history when writing about 4. What boundaries are crossed when trying to write about the more ecologically-aware approach to the more-than-hu- the more-than-human. Rachel Blau DuPlessis long poem more-than-human? man, situating the writer as part of a dynamic system. Drafts gives a model of hybrid writing. The work argues for the importance of writing from a particular place or Chapter 1 explores characterisations of the Moss Valley as an edgeland. Chapter 2 engages with the Moss Val- 4 S AY AG A I N , WHAT IS THE POET/CRITIC? An Introduction to “ENCOUNTER BEFORE IMAGINATION”: a more-than-human poetics from The Moss Valley. Andrew Gordon Jeffrey 5 This creative/critical PhD which considers whether hybrid writing and open form poetry can help instigate and enable an ecologically aware encounter with others is the result of three years of fieldwork in The Moss Valley, a rural/urban edgeland located on the southern fringe of Sheffield or on the northern edge of Derbyshire, depending upon who you speak to. The Moss Valley follows the route of the Moss Brook, or the River Moss, depending upon who you speak to, from its source to its inclusion in the River Rother. It is made up of a patchwork of land uses — woodland, farmland, residential areas, ruins, electricity substations, gravel pits, piles of manure— and is currently the host of a number of controversial exploratory shale gas exploration sites. I had a particular aim to write on site, in the presence of others. I was going to type “I initially chose The Moss Valley because” but am tentatively considering writing “The Moss Valley chose me”. My first introduction happened before I knew it as a place. Oliver Blensdorf, field recorder for The Moss Valley invited me to go with him and look for badgers at dusk. It was pouring with rain and dark and I was in the following mode, which meant that I didn’t register where we were as we crashed through woodland, brambles, across paths. My partner saw the flash of a badger but by the time I turned around it was too late. Oliver told me a bit about the area and how much of it had been designated as SSSI during the 1980s due to the work of his Natural History group who were fighting to protect the area from housing development. I had lived less than three miles from what I came to know as Moss Valley for over ten years and never considered it. I knew there was something I needed to write about, something about my frustrations when trying to talk about the environment, something about how this linked to the awkwardness and confusion relating to anthropocentrism and anthropomorphism in eco-critical writing (Clark, 2011) and something which drew upon the burgeoning work taking place in animal studies (Parry, 2017). I knew that I wanted to write about a variety of species in fresh ways and to write about species I would encounter regularly. Moss Valley seemed to be the perfect place, both close and unknown. As I was passed from person to person; collaborating with the inhabitants of Moss Valley in different ways, as conservationist, protester, observer, tamperer, cutter, nuisance, trespasser or obstacle I altered back and forth from being guest to host, from being stranger to friend.