Plants, Places, and Power

Toward Social and Ecological Justice in German Literature and Film
Erscheinungsjahr 2023
ISBN: 978-1-64014-125-4
Verlag: Boydell & Brewer

Buch, Englisch, 186 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 408 g

Reihe: Women and gender in German studies

Examines portrayals of plants and landscapes in recent German novels and films, addressing the contemporary forms of racism, nationalism, and social and ecological injustice that they expose.

Plants, Places, and Power is a study of plants and landscapes in and beyond contemporary German-language literature and film. Stories and images of plants and landscapes in cultural productions are key sites for exposing the violent legacies of German colonialism and Nazism and for addressing contemporary forms of racism, nationalism, social and ecological injustice, and gender inequity. The novels and films discussed in this book address these key political issues in contemporary Europe and propose alternative ways for people to live together on this planet by formulating more inclusive and sustainable concepts of belonging.

The book has two main objectives: to offer new approaches to contemporary literature and film from an intersectional, ecological perspective, and to form a canon. All of the works focused on, from Mo Asumang's documentary film Roots Germania (2007) through Faraz Shariat's Futur Drei (2020) and from Yoko Tawada's novel Das nackte Auge (2004) to Saša Stanišic's Herkunft (2019), are by female artists, artists of color, artists who have experienced forced displacement, and/or queer artists. In five chapters, Maria Stehle reads artworks in reference to ecological systems, develops forms of eco- and social criticism based on art, and intertwines ecological and critical thinking with questions of form, affect, and aesthetics.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Stehle, Maria

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Deutsche Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Filmwissenschaft, Fernsehen, Radio Filmgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface and Acknowledgments: People and Places

Introduction: Living in Relation: Plants, Place-Making, and Social Justice

1: Landscapes: Infrastructures, Power Topographies, and Feral Gardens in Juli Zeh's Unterleuten (2016), Valeska Grisebach's Western (2017), and Anna Sofie Hartmann's Giraffe (2019)

2: Uncanny Gardens: Migration and Belonging in Dörte Hansen's Altes Land (2015) and Saša Stanišic's Herkunft (2019)

3: Trees, Roots, and Anti-Racism in Ilija Trojanow's Nach der Flucht (2017), Mo Asumang's Roots Germania (2007) and Die Arier (2014), and Elliot Blue's Home? (2018)

4: Defiant Flowers and Manufactured Happiness in Vera Chytilová's Daisies (1966), Pipilotti Rist's Pepperminta (2009), and Jessica Hausner's Little Joe: Glück ist ein Geschäft (2019)

5: Senses, Queer Interrelations, and Decolonial Geographies in Yoko Tawada's Das nackte Auge (2004), Shari Hagen's Auf den zweiten Blick (2012), and Faraz Shariat's Futur Drei (2020)

Epilogue: Erasures and Different Stories

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Stehle, Maria
MARIA STEHLE is Professor of German and Cinema Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.