The topic of this Special Issue of Humanities concerns itself with the shape of the environmental imagination in German culture and its historical and rhetorical dimensions, ethical and philosophical concerns, and aesthetic framings. The visual paradigm is the dominant mode of perceiving nature. As a consequence, many cultural documents stress the scenic element where nature is put on display for gazing onlookers. Contributions to this Special Issue are encouraged to reflect critically on this tradition.
Another important part of the environmental imagination in German culture is its origin in discovery and colonial fantasies. We owe the emergence of the modern environmental imagination to the encounter of the European male subject with the radical other, the non-European, and the radically different nature which in the process of translation is often rendered pleasing to the European eye. Contributions are encouraged to reflect critically on this process of domestication as well.
Papers are also encouraged to reflect on narrating and depicting environmental degradation and on the state and history of human relations with non-humans. How do German authors imagine scenes of environmental threat? What happens when we encounter scenes of dirty nature, when garbage enters the Garden Eden, when chemical bacteria pollute the water supply, when tourists populate small remote Alpine villages, when the effects of climate change and/or rampant extinction of nature-culture are addressed in literary texts, films, documentaries, and art? Essays are encouraged to address these challenges and reflect on the poetic strategies, entanglements, and adaptations for scenes of environmental encounters. Comparative and global perspectives are welcome.
Prof. Sabine Wilke
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2020.Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Special Issue "Environmental Imagination and German Culture"
A special issue of Humanities (ISSN 2076-0787)