Die Unausweichlichkeit von Krisen. Literarische Bilder von Krise und Katastrophe bei Christoph Ransmayr
The Inevitability of Crises: Literary Images of Crisis and Catastrophe in Christoph Ransmayr's Works

Summary/Abstract: At the core of humanity’s crisis awareness lies a perceived threat to human existence, as the long-term consequences of a catastrophe of unbridled civilization destroy the natural environment. In contrast to the plagues foreseen in the Bible or the life-threatening natural disasters in the early Anthropocene, humans subsequently bear joint responsibility for the long-term consequences of environmental destruction. Climate change is viewed as a crisis with unavoidable consequences. These gradual changes testify to the inevitability of environmental destruction which Eva Horn characterizes as a “catastrophe without an event.” This is no longer the case with regard to natural disasters resulting from climate change. However, humans feel little responsibility for that, partly because the catastrophic natural phenomena cannot be clearly classified as consequences of industrial development. Literary ecocriticism and writing in the age of the Anthropocene, on the other hand, attempt to assume responsibility by going beyond describing changes in the relationships between the human and non-human worlds, but also by developing scenarios for addressing the environmental crisis. The following article focuses primarily on texts by Christoph Ransmayr and demonstrates the characteristics, functions, and motivations of a definitional approach to the term ‘crisis’ in his works.

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