

Bénédicte Meillon, "Ecopoetics of Reenchantment: Liminal Realism and Poetic Echoes of the Earth" (Bloomsbury, 2022)
Sep 5, 2025
Bénédicte Meillon, a professor and president of ESLSEA, dives into the transformative concept of liminal realism, blending ecology with poetic expression. She discusses how the pandemic rekindled our connection to nature, revealing the power of storytelling in ecopoetics. The conversation explores the sensory relationships in literature, emphasizing the role of sound and art in environmental awareness. Meillon critiques modern education's dismissal of sensory intelligence, advocating for a more inclusive understanding of our interconnectedness with the earth.
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Lockdown Revealed The Song Of The World
- During COVID lockdown Bénédicte Meillon noticed urban soundscapes become quieter and birds sang more.
- She links that shift to temporary reenchantment and increased awareness of nonhuman agency.
Stories Reshape Human Relations With Nature
- Meillon argues storytelling shapes how humans inhabit the world and can re-enchant disenchanted modern worldviews.
- Fiction can recalibrate perception and restore a relational sense of place with more-than-human life.
A Cross‑Atlantic Corpus Emerged From Dialogue
- Meillon describes assembling a bilingual, cross-Atlantic corpus to bridge Francophone and Anglophone ecopoetics.
- She included Jean Genet to reconnect French avant-garde experiments with contemporary ecofeminist and postcolonial writers.