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Readings in the Anthropocene Summary

Readings in the Anthropocene: The Environmental Humanities, German Studies, and Beyond by Professor Sabine Wilke (University of Washington, Seattle, USA)

Readings in the Anthropocene brings together scholars from German Studies and beyond to interpret the German tradition of the last two hundred years from a perspective that is mindful of the challenge posed by the concept of the Anthropocene. This new age of man, unofficially pronounced in 2000, holds that humans are becoming a geological force in shaping the Earth's future. Among the biggest challenges facing our future are climate change, accelerated species loss, and a radical transformation of land use. What are the historical, philosophical, cultural, literary, and artistic responses to this new concept? The essays in this volume bring German culture to bear on what it means to live in the Anthropocene from a historical, ethical, and aesthetic perspective.

Readings in the Anthropocene Reviews

The thirteen interdisciplinary essays assembled in this volume demonstrate that transatlantic German Studies scholars are at the forefront of cultural studies research on the Anthropocene ... The contributors ... offer innovative examinations of German-language literature, film, photography, philosophy, illustrated periodicals, critical theory, and locations. ... The re-interpretation of canonical nineteenth-century literature makes this volume shine. ... I highly recommend Wilke and Johnstone's Readings in the Anthropocene. The volume is essential reading for specialists and broader audiences conducting cultural studies research and living ethically in the Anthropocene. * Pacific Coast Philology *
Readings in the Anthropocene provides a timely collection of transdisciplinary essays on literary, historical and philosophical texts, films, artworks and caricatures in German studies within the broader fields of ecocriticism and environmental humanities from the eighteenth century until today. Scrutinizing the concept of the Anthropocene, the volume analyses the manifold interactions between the human and non-human world and encourages new thinking toward a sustainable future. * Gabriele Durbeck, Professor of German and Culture Studies, University of Vechta, Germany *
What do Kant, Hegel, Romantic poets and Naturphilosophen, as well as contemporary German writers and artists have to say about the Anthropocene? The answer to this question is at the core of this rich collection, superbly assembled by Sabine Wilke and Japhet Johnstone. Insightful, deeply researched, and elegantly written, the essays of Readings in the Anthropocene not only remind us that many of the concepts we use-ecology, the Faustian delusions of anthropocentrism-find their roots in the German imagination, but also show how intensely that imagination continues to enrich the whole discourse of the environmental humanities. * Serenella Iovino, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Turin, Italy, and editor of Material Ecocriticism and Environmental Humanities: Voices from the Anthropocene *
This excellent volume is distinguished by its cross-disciplinary reach, historical depth, and the considered attention that it brings to the conceptual and poetological, material and moral challenges of living in the Anthropocene. For the seasoned Germanist, there are plenty of welcome surprises here, for instance concerning Kant's eco-cosmopolitanism, the comic questioning of techno-optimism in fin-siecle satirical magazines, or the dark ecology of many recent German literary and visual narratives. Yet in addition to advancing environmental approaches within German Studies, Readings in the Anthropocene will contribute substantially to the internationalisation of the environmental humanities, providing ample evidence of the signal importance of German-language thought, literature, film and cultural history to this burgeoning transdisciplinary field. * Kate Rigby, Professor of Environmental Humanities, Bath Spa University, UK, and Adjunct Professor of Literary Studies, Monash University, Australia *

About Professor Sabine Wilke (University of Washington, Seattle, USA)

Sabine Wilke is Professor of German at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA, where she is also associated with European Studies and the Program in Critical Theory. Her research and teaching interests include modern German literature and culture, intellectual history and theory, and cultural studies. She is the author of German Culture and the Modern Environmental Imagination (2015) and editor of From Kafka to Sebald: Modernism and Narrative Form (Bloomsbury, 2012). Japhet Johnstone is project manager and translator at the University of Erlangen-Nurnberg, Germany. He is co-editor of Crimes of Passion: Representations of Sexual Pathology in the Early Twentieth Century (2015).

Table of Contents

Introduction: Rethinking Literary History, Critical Reading Practices, and Cultural Studies in the Anthropocene Sabine Wilke, University of Washington, USA I. Entanglements 1. A World Without Us: Aesthetic, Literary and Scientific Imaginations of Nature beyond Humankind Wolfgang Struck, University of Erfurt, Germany 2. Hybrid Environments in the Anthropocene: Recent Fiction Carolina Schaumann, Emory University, USA, and Heather Sullivan, Trinity University, USA 3. Looking Behind Walls. Literary and Filmic Imaginations of Nature and Humanity in Haushofer's Die Wand Sabine Frost, University of Washington, USA II. Excess/Sustainability 4. Care and Forethought: The Idea of Sustainability in Hegel's Practical Philosophy Klaus Vieweg, Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena, Germany 5. Save the Forest, Burn Books: On the Science and Poetics of Sustainability in Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Markus Wilczek, Tufts University, USA 6. Mocking the Anthropocene: Caricatures of Man-made Landscapes in German Satirical Magazines from the Fin de Siecle Evi Zemanek, University of Freiburg, Germany 7. The Darkness of the Anthropocene: Wolfgang Hilbig's Alte Abdeckerei. Sabine Noellgen, University of Puget Sound, USA III. Periodization and Scale 8. Immanuel Kant, the Anthropocene, and the Idea of Environmental Cosmopolitanism Amos Nascimento, University of Washington Tacoma, USA 9. Adalbert Stifter and the Gentle Anthropocene Sean Ireton, University of Missouri, USA 10. Engineering the Anthropocene: Technology, Ambition, and Enlightenment in Theodor Storm's Der Schimmelreiter Katie Ritson IV. Diffusion, the Lithic, and a Planetary Praxis 11. Petrifiction: Reimagining the Mine in German Romanticism Jason Groves, San Francisco State University, USA 12. The Anthroposcene of Literature: Diffuse Dwelling in Graham Swift and W.G. Sebald Bernhard Malkmus, Ohio State University, USA 13. Planetary Praxis in the Anthropocene: An Ethics and Poetics for a New Geological Age Sabine Wilke, University of Washington, USA Epilogue: The Anthropocene in German Perspective Axel Goodbody, University of Bath, UK Bibliography Index

Additional information

NLS9781501351495
9781501351495
1501351494
Readings in the Anthropocene: The Environmental Humanities, German Studies, and Beyond by Professor Sabine Wilke (University of Washington, Seattle, USA)
New
Paperback
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
2019-03-21
336
N/A
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