Voices of Nature: An Exploration of Environmental Literature

Dear Colleagues,

While nature has served as a “natural” setting in the arts for a long time, recent theoretical insights and environmental experiences have called into question the previously self-evident hierarchy between humanity and nature. Needless to say, these processes exert a strong influence on contemporary literature, even though the complex poetic and narrative structures of literary works have always presented a more nuanced picture of the relationship between humans and the natural world. Whereas certain approaches in the philosophy of nature have viewed nature as a unified whole, in literature it has taken the form of a patchwork of diverse practices.

This Special Issue aims to examine the sociocultural practices that have shaped—and continue to shape—conceptions of nature in both contemporary and earlier literary works, and to explore the resulting relationships between literature and its various contexts, whether past or present. This encompasses theoretical, ethical, and comparative literary approaches as well.

The ways of constituting, representing, and deciphering the human voice have long been cardinal issues in literature. Voice, sound, and noise are rarely arranged into a seamless teleological progression; rather, it is their composition—and its changes across eras and cultures—that proves decisive. Consequently, the forms through which nature is given voice cannot be treated uniformly. The emerging demand to give voice to nature can thus be viewed both as an ethical obligation and, in certain instances, as a new effort to (re)colonize nature. Meanwhile, the evolving transformations of the voices of nature cast the human voice—and the human position—in a new light. Thus, although “nature” in this Special Issue refers to the natural environment, the question cannot be sharply separated from a rethinking of human nature.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome on a wide range of topics, provided that the focus lies on the exploration of environmental issues in literature. Research questions may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Conventionalization of nature: How do literary representations of nature emerge within their cultural contexts? What kinds of genres and modes of writing govern the representation of nature in literature? How have ways of representing nature varied throughout history? For what reasons have different conventions emerged, and how do they influence, constrain, and stimulate divergent attempts to capture natural forces and effects? What kinds of relationships are established between literature and paraliterary forms, folklore, specific subcultures, etc.?
• Mediatization of nature: What roles have various media played in constructing the concept of nature? How can different media representations or paradigmatic medial changes contribute to transformations in how nature is imagined, shaped, and reorganized? How does nature gain its voice in the digital world? What are the consequences of virtualization for the concept of nature?
• Regionalization of nature: What impact do geocultural and areal differences have on the forms of nature’s representation in literature? How do cultural and geographical differences intertwine with each other? What role does world literature play in the depiction of environmental crises and experiences? What are the connections between changes in literary conventions and changes in environmental conditions?
• Regularization of nature: What kinds of biopolitical trends and contexts govern the representation of nature? How do the forces of nature and the forces acting against nature appear and clash in literature? In what sense is it possible to speak of the voice of nature? Under what conditions can this be considered the re-naturalization or de-naturalization of nature? What are the consequences of the discursive practices through which nature becomes a metaphor for the human world in the formation of literary representation? What does the ethicization of environmental discourses entail? How do the resulting forms of responsibility gain importance in literature?

While the concept of voice can be criticized from several perspectives, it can still serve as a punctum saliens. It sheds light on the various paths and efforts that have emerged to make environmental conditions somewhat understandable; on the theoretical problems arising from the tension between presence and absence, meaningfulness and indeterminacy in the notions of voice and signification; or, conversely, on new opportunities to provide space for nature, even at the cost of the posthumanization of the human. The Special Issue intends to discuss these questions from the perspective of literature.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. László Bengi
Guest Editor

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