From ‘Pathetic Fallacy’ to Affective Attunement: Reading Virgil’s Eclogues through the Lens of Material Ecocriticism

SubStance ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 115-132
Author(s):  
Stefano Rozzoni
Keyword(s):  
Material Ecocriticism ◽  
Affective Attunement

scholarly journals Narrating a Valley in Max Frisch’s Der Mensch erscheint im Holozän: Material Agency, Rain, and the Geologic Past

Humanities ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
Kiley M. Kost
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Memory Loss ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Temporal Scale ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Embodied Experience ◽  
Material Ecocriticism ◽  
Material Agency ◽  
With Memory

The complex narrative composition of image and text in Max Frisch’s Der Mensch erscheint im Holozän discloses entanglements between humans and nonhuman entities that impact the narrative and that demand careful consideration. The story depicts the aging protagonist’s struggle with memory loss and his careful examination of the valley’s mountain formations in fear of a landslide. In this analysis, I show that both of these threats can be read as entangled with nonhuman agents. By focusing on the material dimension of the text, two central and related shifts occur: the background element of rain becomes foregrounded in the narrative, and the natural formations of the valley that are assumed to be static are revealed to be dynamic. These shifts lead to an interpretation of Frisch’s text focused on the impacts of rain and the temporal scale of the text’s geologic dimension. Approaching the text through the lens of material ecocriticism unveils the multiple agencies at play, decenters the human, and illustrates the embodied experience of climate change.

In the mood for disconnection

2021 ◽  
pp. 135485652110346
Author(s):  
Tero Karppi ◽  
Aleena Chia ◽  
Ana Jorge
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Self Help ◽  
Affective Attunement

The needs and desires to disconnect, detox, and log out have been turned into commodities and found their expressions in detox camps, self-help books, and “offline” branded apparel. Disconnection studies have challenged the power of commodified disconnective practices to create real social change. In this article, we build on the notion of affective attunement to explore how disconnection commodities provide differential ways for individuals to respond to the challenges of connectivity, and how they can form larger patterns of resistance that cannot be dismissed as futile. We examine the ambiguity of disconnection commodities through three examples: a smartwatch kill switch and stealth mode features, detox floatation tank therapy, and make-up lines. Our approach turns the perspective from ends to the means of disconnection. We argue that these commodities do not offer hard breaks but they do let users attune to connectivity.

scholarly journals Bettering Our Stories about Stories about Nature

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-207
Author(s):  
Dolly Jørgensen
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Scientific Texts ◽  
Material Ecocriticism ◽  
Museum Displays ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Text Types

      Both environmental historians and ecocriticism scholars are in the business of simultaneously analysing the stories we tell about the human-nature relationship and creating those stories. Using the case of Kiki, an Aldabra giant tortoise on display in the Muséum national d’Historie naturelle in Paris, I present three potential text types in museum displays which lend themselves to new ecocritical readings: museum labels, biographical displays, and material remains. Ecocritical approaches to the genres of scientific texts and animal biographies and the developing field of material ecocriticism prove useful for making sense of the complex narratives of environmental history. Reaching out to ecocriticism approaches can make the stories I tell as an environmental historian better.

Affective attunement in peer dyads containing children adopted from institutions

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-211
Author(s):  
Carrie E. DePasquale ◽  
Megan R. Gunnar
Keyword(s):  
Affective Attunement
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