Perspective on Group Project for Mont Blanc

The Genesis of "Reading Mont Blanc"

The project entitled "Reading Mont Blanc" began as a faint wisp of an idea while my group and I were browsing the hypertext in search of other topics. Happening upon the wonderful maps and illustrations of Wordsworth's travels through France and Switzerland, one member remarked that perhaps we could make use of these in some manner. Then, as the various images of Mont Blanc passed before our eyes -- some picturesque and others clearly sublime -- we wondered if these could not somehow frame an exploration of how nature was conceived and presented by the various travel writers, 'grand tourists', and (of course) poets of the Romantic era. Our decision to focus on a single natural phenomenon, namely Mont Blanc, allowed us a certain amount of 'experimental control' in assessing the potential disparities in perception between our three 'subject groups.' It is of course only in retrospect that one can reduce an epiphany to such rigid, lifeless terms.

Initially we considered designing a poster whereon the pyramidal contours of Mont Blanc could serve as a sort of hierarchical frame in which to organize the various impressions according to their sublime or transcendent qualities. I believe we expected Shelley's "Mont Blanc" to rise to the top. Had any of one of us been particularly adept with scissors and coloured paper, our presentation might have taken this rather more delimiting turn. As it was, we decided to acquaint ourselves with the literature and artistic renderings of Mont Blanc before determining the format of our project. A book of aerial photography of the Alps convinced us that in order to convey the colossal grandeur of Mont Blanc to a group of people who had likely never seen it befor...

... middle of paper ...

...ce moments in which to engage Mont Blanc (as text) on a personal level. I was pleased to read in the responses we received that students were indeed reminded by our presentation of their own experiences with the sublime in nature. Music has the potential I think, more so than literature, to raise that which lies buried in the mind and to forge imaginative connections between distant conceptual poles.

Ultimately I think we learned that Mont Blanc cannot mean one thing; its impact on the beholder cannot be distilled into generic emotive states. Although themes of wonder and awe recur in many of the descriptions of Mont Blanc, such fleeting reactions are but shadowy apprehensions of the potential evocative force of this vista. It is through the mediation of the beholder's own imaginative faculties that s/he vivifies nature or, rather, apprehends its vivifying power.