Aussterben. Über Literarisierungen eines liminalen Lebenswissens
Extinction. On literarizations of a liminal knowledge of life

Summary/Abstract: This essay traces different stages of knowledge of extinction as part of life knowledge. In modernity, reflections on the extinction of natural species are combined with critical views of human civilization. The histories of species between evolution and extinction, as well as controversial views on the role of culture in species extinction, have occupied literature from the end of the 19th century to the present day. More recently, knowledge of the temporality of species has increasingly stimulated massive interventions in nature, the reanimation of extinct species, and the technological expansion of the species spectrum, making the historical format of the bestiary a medium for literary reflection on the boundary between fact and fiction.

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