Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2022

Abstract

Abstract: In Goethe's works, plants abound; as such, they offer many insights for this critical plant studies project on plants and humans in the early Anthropocene. From Werther and die Novelle to Hermann und Dorothea, Faust and his scientific writings, we find three categories of plant depictions: first as embodiments of green vitality that elicit emotional responses; second, as humanly-shaped cultivations or horticultural realms; and third, we find inklings of the promise of actual vegetal agency establishing the very world in which we human beings and all other animals live. In Goethe's wide-ranging botanical ideas, the modern collision between the world-shaping power of industrial humanity and oflong-term green plant power begins to take shape.

Publisher

Peter Lang

City

Berlin

ISSN

2365-645X

ISBN

978-3-631-8538-4

Publication Information

Studies in Literature, Culture, and the Environment / Studien zu Literatur, Kultur und Umwelt

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