Axel Goodbody, Berbeli Wanning (Ed.)
Wasser – Kultur – Ökologie
Beiträge zum Wandel im Umgang mit dem Wasser und zu seiner literarischen Imagination
1. Edition 2008
315 pages
ISBN 978-3-89971-417-3
V&R unipress
plus S&H
Book
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The twin threats of ever increasing scarcity of clean water as a result of rising levels of consumption by a growing world population and the destructive power of storms exacerbated by climate change have made the adoption of a new, ecologically oriented culture of water essential for human survival. The essays collected in the first part of the book deal with subjects ranging from shifting conceptions of urban water supply, challenges to the legal system and paradoxes associated with the renaturalising of polluted rivers to alternative models for our use of water in landscape art. The second section is devoted to literary representations of water as enemy and nature as dangerous Other of human reason. The sea appears as both the origin of life and a force obliterating meaning in human existence, and flowing water as a recurring symbol of poetic creativity. Texts by women writers adapting the traditional association of women with water in critiques of patriarchy are examined in the final section of the book.