German-Language Nature Writing from Eighteenth Century to the Present: Controversies, Positions, Perspectives

This volume examines the topic of German-language nature writing in a broad historical context spanning more than two centuries. It brings together contributions on the debates of the category 'Nature Writing' by numerous renowned international scholars. It discusses literary texts of natural history, nature exploration, nature poetry perception and reflection by German-speaking authors since the 18th century, including texts by Ulrike Draesner and on Esther Kinsky's writing. Both of them were awarded the German Prize for Nature Writing in 2020. The book asks whether the here discussed texts can, should, or may also be labeled as 'Nature Writing' and how this new perspective on German literary history might change traditional classifications such as "Naturlyrik" (nature poetry) in German literary history. Thus, on the one hand the volume contributes to an extremely productive genre discussion that is also triggered by the contemporary literary German book market. Second, arguing against the long-standing position that the German nature-related literature would not include nature writing due to the 'burdened legacy' of a sense of nature contaminated by Nazi ideology, the volume demonstrates the manifold traditions of nature writing going back to Goethe, Novalis, H闤derlin, Alexander von Humboldt, Fontane, Stifter, and others. Moreover, the volume discusses possible reasons why this tradition has been marginalized until today. Finally, the volume contributes to the wider field of ecocriticism that also arrived with considerable delay in German literary studies (partly also due to the above mentioned 'legacy' in Germany).