Kenneth White and Geopoetics
This page is currently under construction. There will be lots more information and some photographs to come.
The concept of geopoetics was originated by Kenneth White in 1979 when he was walking along the north bank of the St Lawrence River into Labrador. However, it developed out of ideas he had been working at earlier in his life such as ‘white world’ and ‘biocosmopoetics’. The essay Into the White World which he wrote in 1967 and which was published in On Scottish Ground in 1998 outlined many of the elements of what was to become geopoetics.
Various people had previously expressed some elements of this outlook such as shamans, Celtic monks who wrote nature poetry and native Americans like Black Elk, but it was Kenneth White who brought it all together in geopoetics and took it much further by proposing it as a central concept for our time by which humanity should seek to live.
His upbringing in Fairlie on the Ayrshire coast of Scotland equipped him for this role and gave him a love of the shore, the woods, hills and moors and their wildlife which has never left him. His travels in many parts of the world and his researches into other cultures enriched his understanding and enabled him to synthesise and go much deeper into ideas and practices which until then had been separate and only partially developed.
The accompanying short biography (to follow) and bibliographies of Kenneth White outline the main events in his life and the books he has written. His essay books, poetry and, prose are essential reading to deepen your understanding of geopoetics and to encourage you to consider how you might apply it creatively in your own life. He is an outstanding teacher as well as a great poet and thinker and has the ability to inspire others to try to see and ‘say the world anew’ as he says in the poem Crow Meditation Text.
Kenneth White
English Bibliography
Poetry
Wild Coal, Paris, Club des Étudiants d’Anglais de la Sorbonne, 1963.
The Cold Wind of Dawn, London, Jonathan Cape, 1966.
The Most Difficult Area, London, Cape Goliard, 1968.
The Bird Path, Collected Longer Poems, Edinburgh and London, Mainstream Publishing, 1989.
Handbook for the Diamond Country, Collected Shorter Poems, Edinburgh and London, Mainstream Publishing, 1990.
Open World, The Collected Poems 1960-2000, Edinburgh, Polygon, 2003.
Narrative
Letters from Gourgounel, London, Jonathan Cape, 1966.
Travels in the Drifting Dawn, Edinburgh and London, Mainstream Publishing, 1989.
The Blue Road, Edinburgh and London, Mainstream Publishing, 1990.
Pilgrim of the Void, Edinburgh and London, Mainstream Publishing, 1992.
House of Tides, Edinburgh, Polygon, 2000.
Across the Territories, Edinburgh, Polygon, 2004.
Essays
The Coast Opposite Humanity, an essay on the poetry of Robinson Jeffers, Carmarthen, Unicorn Bookshop, 1975.
The Tribal Dharma, an essay on the work of Gary Snyder, Carmarthen, Unicorn Bookshop, 1975.
The Life-technique of John Cowper Powys, Swansea, Galloping Dog Press, 1978.
Van Gogh and Kenneth White, An Encounter, Paris, Flohic Éditions, 1994.
On Scottish Ground, Edinburgh, Polygon, 1998.
Geopoetics : Place, Culture, World, Glasgow, Alba Editions, 2003.
The Wanderer and his Charts, Edinburgh, Polygon, 2004.
On the Atlantic Edge, Highland, Sandstone Press, 2006.
Interviews
Coast to Coast, Glasgow, Open World and Mythic Horse Press, 1996.
Translations
Showing the Way, a Hmong Initiation of the Dead, Bangkok, Pandora, 1983.
André Breton, Selected Poems, London, Jonathan Cape, 1969
André Breton, Ode to Charles Fourier, London, Cape Goliard Press, 1969.
Recorded poetry
Into the White World, two cassettes of poetry readings, Scotsoun, 13 Ashton Rd, Glasgow G12 8SP, 1992.
On Kenneth White’s work :
Gavin Bowd, Charles Forsdick and Norman Bissell (ed.), Grounding a World, essays by various authors, St Andrews University Symposium, Glasgow, Alba Editions, 2005.
Kenneth White
French Bibliography
Poetry
En toute candeur, éd. bilingue, trad. Pierre Leyris, Paris, Mercure de France, 1964.
Mahamudra, le grand geste, éd. bilingue, trad. Marie-Claude White, Paris, Mercure de France, 1979.
Le Grand Rivage, éd. bilingue, trad. Patrick Guyon et Marie-Claude White, Paris, Le Nouveau Commerce, 1980.
Scènes d’un monde flottant, éd. bilingue revue et augmentée, trad. Marie-Claude White, Paris, Grasset, 1983.
Terre de diamant, éd. bilingue revue et augmentée, trad. Philippe Jaworski, Marie-Claude White, Paris, Grasset, 1983. Nouvelle édition, Paris, Grasset, Les Cahiers rouges, 2003.
Atlantica, éd. bilingue, trad. Marie-Claude White, Paris, Grasset, 1986. Prix Alfred de Vigny.
Les Rives du silence, éd. bilingue, trad. Marie-Claude White, Paris, Mercure de France, 1997.
Limites et Marges, éd. bilingue, trad. Marie-Claude White, Paris, Mercure de France, 2000.
Le Passage extérieur, éd. bilingue, trad. Marie-Claude White, Paris, Mercure de France, 2005.
Narrative
Les Limbes incandescents, trad. Patrick Mayoux, Paris, Denoël, Les Lettres nouvelles, 1976. Nouvelle édition, Paris, Denoël, 1990.
Dérives, plusieurs traducteurs, Paris, Laffont, Lettres Nouvelles/Maurice Nadeau, 1978.
Lettres de Gourgounel, trad. Gil et Marie Jouanard, Paris, Presses d’aujourd’hui, 1979. Nouvelle édition, Paris, Grasset, Les Cahiers rouges, 1986.
L’Écosse avec Kenneth White, Paris, Flammarion, 1980. Réédition Arthaud, 1988.
Le Visage du vent d’Est, trad. Marie-Claude White, Paris, Les Presses d’aujourd’hui, 1980.
La Route bleue, trad. Marie-Claude White, Paris, Grasset, 1983. Prix Médicis étranger. Livre de poche n° 5988.
Les Cygnes sauvages, trad. Marie-Claude White, Paris, Grasset, 1990.
Corsica, l’itinéraire des rives et des monts, trad. Marie-Claude White, Ajaccio, La Marge, 1999.
La Maison des marées, trad. Marie-Claude White, Paris, Albin Michel, 2005.
Le Rôdeur des confins, trad. Marie-Claude White, Paris, Albin Michel, 2006.
Essays
La Figure du dehors, Paris, Grasset, 1982. Livre de poche, Biblio essais 4105.
Une apocalypse tranquille, Paris, Grasset, 1985.
L’Esprit nomade, Paris, Grasset, 1987.
Le Monde d’Antonin Artaud, Bruxelles et Paris, Éditions Complexe, 1989.
Hokusaï ou l’horizon sensible, Paris, Terrain Vague, 1990.
Le Plateau de l’Albatros, introduction à la géopoétique, Paris, Grasset, 1994.
Les Finisterres de l’esprit, Cléguer, Éditions du Scorff, 1998.
Une stratégie paradoxale, essais de résistance culturelle, Presses universitaires de Bordeaux, 1998.
Interviews
Le Poète cosmographe, Presses universitaires de Bordeaux, 1987.
Le Lieu et la Parole, 1987-1997, Cléguer, Éditions du Scorff, 1997.
Le Champ du grand travail, Bruxelles, Didier Devillez Éditeur, 2002.
L’Ermitage des brumes, Paris, Dervy, 2005.
On Kenneth White’s Work
Michele Duclos (dir.), Le Monde ouvert de Kenneth White, essais et témoignages par divers auteurs, Bordeaux, Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, 1995.
Jean-Jacques Wunenburger (dir.), Autour de Kenneth White : espace, pensée poétique, essais par divers auteurs, Dijon, Presses Universitaires de Dijon, 1996.
Olivier Delbard, Les lieux de Kenneth White, paysage, pensée, poétique, Paris, L’Harmattan, 1999.
Pierre Jamet, Le local et le global dans l’œuvre de Kenneth White, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2002.
Jean-Yves Kerguelen, Kenneth White et la Bretagne, Moëlan-sur-Mer, Éditions Blanc Silex, 2002.
Michele Duclos, Nomade intellectuel, poète du monde, Grenoble, ELLUG – Université Stendhal, 2006.
Laurent Margantin, (dir.), Kenneth White et la Géopoétique, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2006.
