Workshop: Environmental Ethics and Climate Justice

What function does literature have in the context of environmental ethics, climate and energy justice? How does literature imagine and represent those power structures and industrial-political interrelationships which inequality and environmental racism not only favor but also systematically expand? To what extent literature has influenced reflection about environmental questions, as well as which ethical aspects are connected to this topic, has been intensely discussed in research. Drawing on approaches such as post-humanism, the question of human responsibility was analyzed on the basis of the connection between humans and animals, but also between machines and matter. Literary reflections of the climate crisis and the resulting demand for a sustainable lifestyle hold an important position in these discussions. Especially in the USA, Canada, and other settler nations—having emerged from the British imperialism of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries—like Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand, such discourses are an elementary component of indigenous and anti-colonial politics around decolonialization. Energy and extraction form the analytical core of radical critiques of neoliberal economics and the connected neo-colonial configurations of power.

Starting from these approaches, the DFG-Network “Energy & Literature” will discuss the connection between literature and discourses on environmental ethics and climate justice from March 25-27, 2025, at the FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg. In the process of the discussions, important intersections of literary work and activism will be uncovered. On March 25, a public evening event will take place in the E-Werk cultural center. Zara Zerbe will read from her novel Phytopia Plus (2024). The reading will be followed by a public discussion on the topic of energy and climate justice. Please refer to the schedule for the exact procedure.