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(Bad) Air and (Faulty) Inspiration: Elemental and Environmental Influences on Fontane

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German Ecocriticism in the Anthropocene

Part of the book series: Literatures, Cultures, and the Environment ((LCE))

Abstract

Theodor Fontane’s obsession with air documented in his writings takes two very different forms. In his fiction, he assesses air quality in gendered terms so that men’s comments on factory smoke and smells metaphorically reveal their social and political positions, whereas women’s insatiable hunger for fresh air is symptomatic for their suffering in their marriages. In Fontane’s letters and diaries, on the other hand, references to air relate to his specific “meteopathia,” that is, his belief that his writing depended on “good air.” This chapter contextualizes Fontane’s works within the Anthropocene discourses, studying his reflections on the weather, “air cures,” and the aerial transmission of bacteria in terms of contemporary discourses on miasma, traditional concepts of “inspiration,” Buell’s “toxic discourse,” and Alaimo’s “trans-corporeality.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Freiburg University, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

    Evi Zemanek

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  1. Evi Zemanek
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Caroline Schaumann

  2. Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, USA

    Heather I. Sullivan

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Zemanek, E. (2017). (Bad) Air and (Faulty) Inspiration: Elemental and Environmental Influences on Fontane. In: Schaumann, C., Sullivan, H. (eds) German Ecocriticism in the Anthropocene. Literatures, Cultures, and the Environment. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54222-9_8

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