Plumbing Distant Spatiotemporal Scales: Towards an Econarratology of Planetary Memory in Narratives of the Global South
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Jan Rupp
Abstract
This essay explores figurations of environmental memory in narratives of the Global South for the particular insights they offer into today’s global climate crisis. It is located at the intersection between cultural narratology and postcolonial ecocriticism, highlighted by recent work on ecological and ethical dimensions of storyworlds, as well as on their potential for cross-cultural understanding. Narratives from the Global South, the essay argues, frequently elaborate storyworlds on distant spatiotemporal scales, allowing readers to gauge central long-term as well as world-encompassing developments of anthropogenic change. Emerging from areas and climate zones in which the current environmental crisis is most keenly felt, these narratives retrieve fundamental ecological insights that may sensitize readers everywhere to the planet’s precarious present, and thus help work towards ensuring a viable future. Their depiction of wide-ranging environmental memories can be seen to offer a blueprint against lingering amnesia, as issues of environmental justice loom large and the task of generating a shared commitment to the world is becoming increasingly urgent.
Abstract
This essay explores figurations of environmental memory in narratives of the Global South for the particular insights they offer into today’s global climate crisis. It is located at the intersection between cultural narratology and postcolonial ecocriticism, highlighted by recent work on ecological and ethical dimensions of storyworlds, as well as on their potential for cross-cultural understanding. Narratives from the Global South, the essay argues, frequently elaborate storyworlds on distant spatiotemporal scales, allowing readers to gauge central long-term as well as world-encompassing developments of anthropogenic change. Emerging from areas and climate zones in which the current environmental crisis is most keenly felt, these narratives retrieve fundamental ecological insights that may sensitize readers everywhere to the planet’s precarious present, and thus help work towards ensuring a viable future. Their depiction of wide-ranging environmental memories can be seen to offer a blueprint against lingering amnesia, as issues of environmental justice loom large and the task of generating a shared commitment to the world is becoming increasingly urgent.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter i
- Contents v
- A Tale of Two Concepts: Ansgar Nünning at Sixty 1
- Stories of Dangerous Life in the Post- Trauma Age: Toward a Cultural Narratology of Resilience 15
- Mind the Narratives: Towards a Cultural Narratology of Attention 37
- The End of the World (as We Know It)? – Cultural Ways of Worldmaking in Contemporary Post-Apocalyptic Narratives 57
- Plumbing Distant Spatiotemporal Scales: Towards an Econarratology of Planetary Memory in Narratives of the Global South 75
- Narrative Forms in the Age of the Anthropocene: Negotiating Human-Nonhuman Relations in Global South Novels 91
- Fact, Fiction, and Everything in-between: Strategies of Reader Activation in Postcolonial Graphic Narratives 109
- ‘It’s Not Our Opinion, It’s the Opinion of Our Roles’ – Fremdverstehen Revisited or: Where Foreign Language Education and Narratology Can Meet 129
- Narrative and Visual Resources of Culture in Contemporary Indigenous Children’s Books from Australia 149
- Troubling Justice: Narratives of Revenge 165
- Erin Burnett in Mali: Bardic Television and the Genealogy of Cultural Narratology 185
- New Media Narratives: Olivia Sudjic’s Sympathy and Identity in the Digital Age 199
- The ‘Death’ of the Unreliable Narrator: Toward a Functional History of Narrative Unreliability 215
- Odyssean Travels: The Migration of Narrative Form (Homer – Lamb – Joyce) 241
- A European Storyteller? Collective Narration in John Berger’s Into Their Labours 269
- Brexit as Cultural Performance: Towards a Narratology of Social Drama 293
- Contributors 321
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter i
- Contents v
- A Tale of Two Concepts: Ansgar Nünning at Sixty 1
- Stories of Dangerous Life in the Post- Trauma Age: Toward a Cultural Narratology of Resilience 15
- Mind the Narratives: Towards a Cultural Narratology of Attention 37
- The End of the World (as We Know It)? – Cultural Ways of Worldmaking in Contemporary Post-Apocalyptic Narratives 57
- Plumbing Distant Spatiotemporal Scales: Towards an Econarratology of Planetary Memory in Narratives of the Global South 75
- Narrative Forms in the Age of the Anthropocene: Negotiating Human-Nonhuman Relations in Global South Novels 91
- Fact, Fiction, and Everything in-between: Strategies of Reader Activation in Postcolonial Graphic Narratives 109
- ‘It’s Not Our Opinion, It’s the Opinion of Our Roles’ – Fremdverstehen Revisited or: Where Foreign Language Education and Narratology Can Meet 129
- Narrative and Visual Resources of Culture in Contemporary Indigenous Children’s Books from Australia 149
- Troubling Justice: Narratives of Revenge 165
- Erin Burnett in Mali: Bardic Television and the Genealogy of Cultural Narratology 185
- New Media Narratives: Olivia Sudjic’s Sympathy and Identity in the Digital Age 199
- The ‘Death’ of the Unreliable Narrator: Toward a Functional History of Narrative Unreliability 215
- Odyssean Travels: The Migration of Narrative Form (Homer – Lamb – Joyce) 241
- A European Storyteller? Collective Narration in John Berger’s Into Their Labours 269
- Brexit as Cultural Performance: Towards a Narratology of Social Drama 293
- Contributors 321
