Ecological Thought in German Literature and Culture

Gabriele Dürbeck is professor of literature and cultural studies at University of Vechta.Urte Stobbe is postdoctoral fellow and lecturer in the field of German literature and linguistic at University of Vechta.Hubert Zapf is professor of American literature and co-director of environmental humanities research at the University of Augsburg.Evi Zemanek is associate professor of German literature and interart studies at the University of Freiburg.

• Introduction Gabriele Dürbeck, Urte Stobbe, Hubert Zapf, and Evi ZemanekPart I: Proto-Ecological Thought1.Cultural History of the Four Elements Anke Kramer2.Goethe’s Concept of Nature: Proto-Ecological ModelHeather Sullivan3.Nature, Language, and Religion: Herder and BeyondKate Rigby4.Poet and Philosopher: Novalis and Schelling on Nature and Matter Berbeli Wanning 5.Alexander von Humboldt as Ecologist Caroline Schaumann Part II: Theoretical Approaches6.Heidegger’s Ecological Criticism Silvio Vietta7.Ecocriticism and the Frankfurt School Timo Müller8.The Ethics and Aesthetics of Landscapes Angelika Krebs9.Niklas Luhmann’s Theory of Social Systems Hannes Bergthaller 10.Risk Theory Benjamin Bühler11.Cultural Ecology Hubert ZapfPart III: Environmental History in Germany12.Thinking the Disaster: A Historical Approach Francois Walter13.Industrial Pollution in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries Martin Bemmann14.Cultural Landsca

The volume Ecological Thought in German Literature, edited by some of the leading German researchers in ecologically-oriented literary studies, highlights the "potentially infinite connectivity and potentially infinite diversity" of the "ecological thought" (Dürbeck/Stobbe/Zapf/Zeminek xiv). This volume shows that German ecological thought looks back on a long and highly-differentiated tradition of theory and methodology and can, therefore, be more fruitfully summarized under the label of ecological thinking rather than under that of ecocriticism.