Keywords
German contemporary literature
Christoph Ransmayr
Karen Duve
dirt theory
How to Cite
Abstract
Using insights from the field of material ecocriticism, this article examines how human subjects in Christoph Ransmayr’s Morbus Kitahara and Karen Duve’s Regenroman, relate to their dynamic material environment. The literary imagination allows us to acknowledge the interconnectedness of humans, waste and nature by revealing the human subject as part of networks of distributed agents.
Traditionally, man’s supposed superiority was achieved through dualisms: cultural activities were assigned to the realm of the active, while the material environment was considered to be passive. In both novels, intermediate characters are introduced who escape these dualisms and, by doing so, illustrate the interconnectedness with their environment. Furthermore, dualistic thinking is also destabilized by drawing attention to the materiality of the human body itself.
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