Proto-Climate-Change Fiction -- Speculative future fiction: dystopian and post-apocalyptic narratives -- Realist narratives set in the present and near future -- Thriller, crime, conspiracy, social satire -- Children's film and young adult novels -- Literary modernism. -- Notes on Contributors.
"This book traces how attitudes towards science and technology, nature and the environment in Germany shifted over the course of the twentieth century. It approaches them through discussion of a range of novels and plays, poems and essays largely new to English readers. In their narratives, which often have an autobiographical dimension, practical environmental problems and underlying issues of ecological ethics are brought to life and reflected on. The book draws on the ideas of British and American cultural theorists alongside German thinkers such as Heidegger and Adorno, and develops a new conception of cultural ecology explaining the role which writers have played in articulating and shaping conceptions of nature and naturalness, and the input of cultural discourse into environmental debate. The influence of Goethe and the Romantics, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, Monism and the Life Reform Movement are traced in green thinking, and attention is given to the political implications of the reconfigurings of their ideas. Technological disasters, living in harmony with nature, hunting and allotment gardens are among the topics discussed."--Jacket
Though much has been written about the Green Party in Germany, less is known about the changes in individuals' attitudes towards the environment that led to the rise of environmental movement, or of its cultural roots. This volume draws attention to the breadth of environmentalism in contemporary Germany and its significance for German political culture by focusing on the treatment of "green" issues in literature, the media and film, against the background of Green politics and the environmental movement. The volume includes an interview with Carl Amery, the Bavarian Green and science fiction writer, a short text by him and an account of his activities as writer and campaigner.
The environment plays a central role in contemporary German political culture. Umwelt-Lesebuch provides essential factual information on the key themes of forest dieback, nuclear power, endangered species, the changing landscape, and the darker side of technology and progress, giving an overview of contemporary German responses to the global ecological problems of our time.