Planetary Textuality

Knowledge of Earth history is produced by the geological interpretation of material traces as signs of past events and processes. The system formed by material traces, geological practices of interpretation, and written accounts of Earth history promotes the notion of “planetary textuality.” In a close reading of Asmus Trautsch’s poem “Die Urwälder Europas” (2016), this essay shows how literature, owing to its meta-poetic reflection on language, can contribute to a better understanding of and critical inquiry into nonlinguistic systems of meaning that allow humans to situate themselves within Earth history. As humans are agents of Earth history in the Anthropocene, and as their activities increasingly inscribe themselves into the planet’s material records, these records become an essential source for understanding human history and existence. Therefore, the narration and representation of Earth history have important cultural and political implications. Combining planetary textuality and geological practices of interpretation with cultural and literary criticism offers crucial meta-poetical insights into the production of the Earth as a text

Art · Die (integrated circuit · Humanities · Linguistics · Literature · Operating system · Reading (process · Textuality · Computer Science · Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature · German Colonialism and Identity Studies · Literature and Cultural Memory · Philosophy