The Naturalist’s Bookshelf – The ‘wild’ word in nature writing: shifting meanings, clashing responses

The idea of ‘the wild’ has great power both to attract us, and to repel us. Before the Romantic movement, the term was mainly repellent in European literature, evoking ‘uncivilised’ domains. The Romantics inverted this stereotype, seeing untamed and uncrowded nature as a lost Eden, a blessed refuge for souls fleeing the constraints and oppression of industrialised cities, even as a synonym for the sublime. Today, it’s a powerful and frequently used word in book titles. Nature writers, Lisa Fingleton, Anja Murray, Gwen Wilkinson, and Paddy Woodworth, come to Dublin Book Festival to discuss the complicated promises and threats of "wild". Chaired by Luke Clancy of RTÉ lyric fm's Culture File, taking place out by the National Botanic Gardens.