Representations of Water in an International Comparative Perspective I

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1 EASCLE CONFERENCE, Klagenfurt 2006

2 WORKSHOPS A Samstag, Saturday, 10:45-12:15 A 1: Representations of Water in an International Comparative Perspective I CHAIR: Axel Goodbody A-1.1 Shin Yamashiro (University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, JAPAN) Rapture of the Deep: Experiences and Languages of the Underwater Experience Jean-Albert Foex says in The Underwater Man that it is quite conceivable that underwater man will be spiritually transformed by his activity, that from his intercourse with the sea he will receive an unexpected gift: a certain wisdom, a different way of thinking, judging and making decisions. It is true that, when writers experience the interior of the sea, they marvel at the beauty, ponder on the infinite, and feel incapable of describing what they see. Human activities in the ocean have been recorded in literature all over the world, however, there has been few, if any, scholarship to examine what they are like. If environmental literature concerns the relationship between the living organisms and the environment in general, then, we ought to pay attention to the interior of the sea, asking what it is like for humans and non-human organisms, and how it influences upon our environmental consciousness. In my presentation, I would like to outline environmental consciousness in the ocean by analyzing various authors such as: Jacques-Yves Cousteau, William Beebe, Brenda Peterson, Sylvia A. Earle, and some Japanese writers (Kanno Shuichi and Yazaemon Yamashita). I will especially be interested in examining how they respond to, and how they are spiritually transformed by, their underwater experiences. By reading international texts (mostly American and Japanese) about the underwater experience, I wish to discuss how terrestrial experience might look different from the oceanic standpoint, and argue furthermore that environmental studies need to incorporate the oceanic environment, its experience and discourse. A-1.2 Nonie Sharp (La Trobe University, Melbourne) UP AMONG THE CLOUDS,DOWN UPON THE EARTH: RAIN, PLACE, CLIMATE IN THE POETIC AND LITERARY IMAGINATION TODAY AND YESTERDAY This essay takes as its point of departure the cloud/meteorological preoccupations of poets and artists in the romantic era of scientific discovery in the first half of the nineteenth century. It considers some of the themes embedded in their perceptions of rain, clouds, haze, landscape and seascape: purity and beauty, mystery and awe, regeneration and, in Coleridge's major work, the fear-inspiring, threatening, retributive power of nature. Three cloud, rain and place stories are told here; each speaks to the other two. The first tells how poets and artists of the early nineteenth century responded to meteorological discoveries of their times on climate, clouds and rain. Up among the Clouds is the title of the American landscape painter, Jasper Cropsey's influential essay reflecting upon his cloud studies, published in the serial Crayon in The new meteorology did not threaten their sense of the order of things - it extended it. Among the English poets, Shelley speaks most clearly this language of a poetic awareness deepened by an understanding of the science of earth and sky. The second explores the regenerative theme. It begins with a rain story in the creative voice, a metaphor for cultural regeneration. It speaks of contemporary expressions of attachments to place, of a rebirth of the spirit, of life, of art among an Indigenous saltwater people of tropical Australia at the close of the twentieth century, a time of loss and

3 transformation. The third story comes from children. During a song festival in Australia `Children Sing for Water', Melbourne , children of 8-11 years in nine schools, were encouraged to participate in story-songs on water-wise topics. However, in a poetry workshop in one regional school, children of the same age grouping were simply asked to write their own poems about water. Among these artist-poets `in the bud', the four themes of beauty, mystery, regeneration, fear-inspiring all find a place in their poetic imaginations. At a time when human fingerprints are leaving their `marks upon the clouds, the atmosphere, the climate, the land, the sea, is the threatening side of life waves breaking the world moving towards the foreground? The essay concludes with some questions about our era and those of the past? Has poetry declined, or has its form changed? Are there philosopher-poets whose musical magic can release the power of words in song and performance? Are the old boundaries shifting, or dissolving? Is climate and atmosphere now taking scientist and poet into one fold in sensing the strength, the beauty and the fragility of what Darwin's colleague, Alfred Russel Wallace called `The Great Aerial Ocean'? A-1.3 Irena Ragaišien, Ph.D (Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas) Re-Visions of the Aquatic in Sylvia Plath s Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams and Jolita Skabliauskait s The Quagmire Woman 1 This paper seeks to examine the revisionist treatment of the aquatic in Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams by Sylvia Plath, an American writer ( ), and The Quagmire Woman by Jolita Skablauskait, a Lithuanian writer (b. 1950). These quasi-surreal narratives though seem to be focused on the representation of individual psychic states, foreground the interplay of social determinants that affect the relationship between humans and the environment. In Sylvia Plath s text, the representation of this relationship may be traced in the symbolism of unclear water. Apart from psychoanalytical significations, this epitomizes an inevitable link between destabilized socio/eco systems and the destabilized or toxic consciousness. One reason for the destabilization that emerges directly out of an anthropomorphic treatment of water in the story, and which is central to Plath s oeuvre, is a critique of the hierarchical treatment of nature and culture. Jolita Skablauskait s The Quagmire Woman, with its emphasis on the gendered perception of space projected on aquatic symbolism, provides a locus for the investigation of the female protagonist s self-identification within nature/culture dualism and probing into the meanings of the natural. The emphasis on a polarized perception of space highlights the controlling power of dominant forces. What makes the comparison of Plath s and Skablauskait s texts meaningful, then, is the manner in which each reveals environmental, gender and social sensitivity by exposing and criticizing tropes that reflect the multifarious aspects of an interaction between nature and culture. A-1.4 Esterino Adami (University of Turin, ITALY) A Labyrinth of Water in Postcolonial and Postmodern Fiction Raja Rao and Italo Calvino (CANCELLED) Water images constitute seminal elements across different cultures in their efforts to shape myths, beliefs and tradition. Within the scope of water imagery, postcolonial and postmodern writers work out a multiplicity of values that seem to characterise the pathway of manhood by generating rites and visions, dreams and practices. I would like to propose a provocative comparison and exploration of Raja Rao s On the Ganga Ghat and Italo Calvino s Invisible Cities in order to analyse the literary representation of water throughout the textual interstices created by two authors who belong to extremely different cultural contexts and yet enhance and reformulate the potentialities of the fluid element. 1 My translation from Lithuanian into English. Liūnsargių moteris in the original.

4 In his outlandish collection of stories, Raja Rao, one of the most important figures in contemporary Indian fiction in English, draws on the heritage of Hinduism a plethora of watery references to highlight the sacred role of the Ganges, the most revered river in India, usually addressed as Mother Ganga, endowed with the power not only to wash away our karma the accretions of all our past lives but also free us from rebirth forever 2. With its magic flow, the river transforms the whole city of Benares also known as Varanasi or Kashi and projects the hopes of men in a never-ending stream since its thaumaturgic waters become the Mother of Compassion. Celebrated through the ancient structures of Hinduism, the Ganga s water functions as a mechanism of regeneration that Raja Rao employs in his writing to endorse an existential quest. Italo Calvino s invisible cities fluctuate in a dream-like dimension: Isaura, Fillide, Anastasia, Valdrada 3 are utopic/dystopic sites surrounded by canals, rivers, lakes and ponds and grounded upon a new textual architecture. In a rhizomatic manner, they connect the expectations and fears of men and, with a postmodern twist. The characters inhabiting these imaginary locations find their own images reflected on the surface of the water and, in their double identity, they seek for new spaces, questions and forms of being A 2: Fluß und Meer in der deutschsprachigen Literatur CHAIR: Alwin Fill A-2.1 Fomina Sinaida (Staatliche Universität für Architektur und Bauwesen, Woronesh, Russia) Die Lebens- und Todwasserbilder in der deutschsprachigen Literatur und Poesie In meinem Beitrag werden ökologisch beeinflusste Wassermetaphern in den Werken einiger moderner deutschsprachiger und klassischer Autoren betrachtet. Es wird Versuch unternommen, einige kognitiv-psychologische, philosophische, ästhetische und ethischmoralische Zusammenhänge zwischen dem Wasserphänomen und der Innen- und Außenwelt des modernen Menschen aufgrund der Analyse literarischer Texte festzustellen. In den Vordergrund wird der zivilisierte Mensch, der unter den Bedingungen der Umweltzerstörung, Umweltvernichtung und dgl. lebt und der ständig die technokratische Expansion beobachtet, die sich auf die immer mehr grösser werdende Erdfläche verbreitet, gerückt. Es wird der Frage nachgegangen, inwiefern die Seelenökologie und die Wasser-, Naturökologie) im Einklang stehen. Nicht uninteressant sind in diesem Zusammenhang die sich aus diesen Prozessen ergebenden neue Werte und Einstellungen des modernen Menschen zur Natur wie auch zum Wasserphänomen. Betrachtet werden auch einige mit der obigen Problematik verbundene mythische, religiöse, tiefenpsychologische Voraussetzungen im Hinblick auf die Deutung des Waserphänomens in verschiedenen Weltkulturen. Das Wasser ist bekanntlich als die Urzeitflut in vielen Weltschöpfungsmythen die Quelle alle Lebens (Lebenswasser), das aus ihm emporsteigt, zugleich aber auch ein Element der Auflösung und des Ertrinkens (Todwasser). Dies ist eine der ambivalentesten Eigenschaften des Wassers. Das Todwasser ist das erste Frühlingswasser des getauten Eises und Schnees, es verjagt Eis und Schnee, aber es gibt noch kein Grün kein Leben. Das Lebenswasser ist das Wasser des ersten Frühlingsregens, es lässt die Erde [zum Leben] erwecken. Dank diesem Wasser werden Bäume, Sträucher, Gras und Blumen wach und beginnen sich zu grünen (Stepanow, 1997: 192). In der klassischen und modernen deutschsprachigen Literatur und Poesie ist das Phänomen des Wassers bekanntlich weit und breit präsent. Die Analyse des Wasserphänomens in literarischen Texten weist auch ganz deutlich auf zwei entgegengesetzte Polen des Wassers hin: das Wasser wird entweder als ein äusserst positives, essentiell wichtiges Universumselement (als Lebensquelle, Lebenswasser) oder umgekehrt: als eine lebensbedrohliche, für die ganze Umwelt schädliche Substanz dargestellt. Zwischen diesen 2 Raja Rao, On the Ganga Ghat (1989), New Delhi, Orient Paperbacks, 1993, p Italo Calvino, Le città invisibili (1972), in Altri romanzi, Edizioni CDE, Milan, 1995.

5 zwei Polen dreht sich eine breite Palette metaphorischer Wasserbilder. Diese polaren Charakteristiken des Wassers, die grösstenteils durch ökologische Faktoren verursacht sind, finden ihren deutlichen Ausdruck hauptsächlich in zahlreichen und vielfältigen Wasssermetaphern. Der Analyse wird auch das Gedicht An das Meer, das von dem schweizerischen Dichter des 19. Jahrhunderts Heinrich Leuthold geschrieben wurde, unterworfen, denn auch hier lässt sich die Polarität des Wassers verfolgen. Die Waagschale geht allerdings eher in die Richtung der negativen Charakteristik des Wassers. Das Wasser wird hier als eine philosophische Kategorie angedeutet und das Meer wird als die verkörperte Weltgeschichte interpretiert. Eine Art Apokalypse ergibt sich aus der Beschreibung des Meeres und seiner ungeheuren Macht über den Menschen. Die Ambivalenz des Wassers (als Symbol des Lebens und des Todes) und die Polarität der Weltgeschichte überschneiden sich. Sie haben viel Gemeinsames. «Das Gewaltigste, was es überhaupt zu sehen gibt, tritt hier in die Erscheinung. [...]. Aber zugleich stürmt ihm aus der ungeheuren Gegenwart des Meeres auch die entsetzlichste Sinnlosigkeit entgegen. Die Fragen nach dem grossen Geist, dem lenkenden Gesetz hinter den Triumphen und Untergängen der Weltgeschichte verhallen im Leeren. Die letzten Worte sind Trümmer und Leichen» (Peter von Matt:2001, S.56) Die ähnliche Darstellung des Wasserphänomens lässt sich auch in Bertolt Brechts Werk Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny nachvollziehen, in dem das Wasser, einerseits, mit Glück und Hoffnung und, andererseits, mit dem Hurrikan/ Taifun identifiziert wird, der alles auf seinem Wege zu vernichten droht. A-2.2 Helga Korodi (Richard-Müller-Schule Fulda, Würzburg, Germany) Otto Alschers Wasserimpressionen in existenzphilosophischem Zusammenhang A) Während seiner lebenslangen Wanderung durch die Wildnis verbindet die Literatur Otto Alscher ( ) mit der Außenwelt. Seine Richtung gilt als neu und findet bei namhaften Verlagen Anklang. Nach 1930 ist die Verbindung zur Gesellschaft gestört, er geht - für eine lange Zeit - als eine Stimme der inneren Emigration unter. B) Die Grundelemente der Welt sind sowohl Medien der Freiheit als auch der Geborgenheit 1. Das Schmelzen einer arktischen Eisbrücke als Bild expressionistischer Zerrissenheit - Die Hunde, eine frühe existenzphilosophische Kurzgeschichte, erscheint im Pester Lloyd, Forscher retten sich aus dem Wasser und hintergehen ihre schlafenden Hunde. Jeder Ruderschlag entfernt sie aus der emotionalen Sicherheit einer fürsorglichen Gemeinschaft und bestätigt ihre Schuld und Entfremdung. Als neuere Dichtung. würdigt H. Hesse diese Geschichte (Quelle: Band Die Kluft, 1917) in der 1918 mit Woltereck erstellten Anthologie Strömungen. 2. Die Wucht des Wassers hinterlässt eine Szenerie der Verwüstung und Todesmystik - In der Geschichte Die drei Toten, Brenner, 1912 klingt die Untergangs- und Aufbruchsstimmung der Jahrhundertwende in Wien nach. Unfähig die Naturgewalten in ihrer Totalität zu begreifen, sinkt ein Hirtenpaar zurück in Alltag und Stumpfsinn, während der Erzähler ästhetisch-dekadent über die Zerstörung sinniert. 3. Das Ufer zur neuromantischen Totalität des Gefühls - Am Bega -Fluss in Temeswar findet Alscher 1917 eine neue Liebe und ein sicheres Ufer. Eine Passage aus dem Roman Löwentöter schildert das Wasser als Urgrund allen Seins 4. Schnee, als Bild der seelischen Erstarrung - Die Wildnis, als sicherer Zufluchtsort beschworen, bannt keine Existenznöte; Originalität ohne Rezeption läuft aus dem Ruder. Alscher ist mit sich selbst nicht mehr identisch. Das Grandiose einer verschneiten Landschaft im Fortsetzungsroman Zwei Mörder in der Wildnis (Zeitschrift Daheim, 1933) blendet und adelt nicht; Die Ehre, die einem Jäger für ein erlegtes Rudel gesellschaftlich gebühren sollte, wird theoretisch eingefordert aber literarisch nicht realisiert. Der Autor ist sich mit seinem auktorialen Erzähler uneins und schreibt einen absurden Text zu einem literaturgeschichtlich ungewöhnlich frühen Zeitpunkt.

6 5. Wasser als Sinnbild und schicksalhafter Sinngehalt - die Emblematik im Schnee bestraft die Hybris eines Wolfs in Die gebrochene Zehe, (Quelle: Band Tier und Mensch, 1928). Der Jäger erkennt eine eindeutige Spur und tötet den Mörder seines Jagdhunds. Im neuen Gleichgewicht erreicht ihn der Schmerz des Verlusts. - In der Geschichte Die Wasser ziehen (Kronstädter Zeitung, 1933) ruft die kollektive Frühseele und befreit ein Büffelgespann aus seinem Joch. In den überfluteten Auen der Donau wittern die schwerfälligen Tiere die Freiheit und folgen beschwingt ihrer Urerinnerung. 6. Ein Wildbach im magischen Wechselbezug zu den in ihm beheimateten Wesen - Die Magie des Elements in der Kurzgeschichte Der Schatten (Quelle: Band Die Bärin. Besinnliche Tiergeschichten ) schützt einen Otter vor der menschlichen Schattengestalt, die ihm mit einer Reuse auflauert. Der Mond spiegelt sich im Wasser, Bach und Otter sprühen vor Lebensfreude. Das Wasser als Seelenträger ist nicht einzufangen und nicht zu komprimieren. Wer zurückbleibt, das ist der plumpe Fallensteller. C) Denn ewig ist nur die Natur. Zeichenhaft für das Schicksal von Alschers Leben und Werk ist der Untergang seiner Heimatstadt Orschowa unter den Fluten der Donau. Die ökologischen Aspekte standen im Rumänien der Sechzigerjahre nicht zur Debatte, die multikulturelle Heiterkeit des Hafenstädtchens auch nicht, dem Diktator imponierte die Größe des Projekts. (Präsentation mit Folien + OHP oder Power Point) A-2.3 Gül Gülseven (Universität Paderborn, Germany) Dunkle Wasser bei John von Düffel: Vom Wasser Die Betrachtungen und Deutungen von Wasser treten in der Literatur mannigfach hervor. Für eine Konzentration auf das flüssige Element ist es nicht nur bedeutsam wasserzentrierte Erzählungen aufzusuchen, sondern sie ebenso vor dem Hintergrund der Literatur- und Kulturkritik zu lesen. Die Ökokritik greift hier durch eine akkurate Anschauung der Natur und ihrer Darstellung in der Literatur. Im Besonderen, da ein ökologischer Ansatz die prekäre Situation des menschlichen Lebens in der Natur thematisiert, bzw. durchleuchtet und dies wiederum eine Aufwertung der Natur sowie ein gesellschaftliches Umdenken ausdrückt. John von Düffel berücksichtigt diesen Wandel und teilt in seinem Werk Vom Wasser dem feuchten Element eine aktive Rolle zu. Die Signifikanz von Wasser, eingebettet in die Natur, wird vor allem durch seinen Protagonisten und gleichzeitigen Erzähler, der eine starke Abhängigkeit zum Wasser aufweist, verdeutlicht. Dieser erzählt seine Familiengeschichte, vor allem von seinen männlichen Ahnen, die sich an einem Ort niederließen und die Kraft von zwei Flüssen gegensätzlicher Erscheinungen für ihre Firma nutzten. Die Beschaffenheit des Wassers und dessen Topographie werden bereichert durch symbolische und mythische Deutungsmöglichkeiten, die bei der weiblichen Bevölkerung der Erzählung ihren Nachklang haben. Es sind Märchen und Sagen über den Fluss, die Orpe, dem dadurch Aufmerksamkeit und Respekt gezollt wird, denn dieser wird durch ein Wasserwesen verkörpert, das nicht gestört werden darf. Mit der Personifizierung des Flusses wird das Wasser zum tragenden Element der Erzählung, da es sich plätschernd oder strömend durch die Leben der Figuren zieht. Auf der Grundlage der erstrangigen Stellung des Fließenden im Text Vom Wasser sollen nicht nur mythische oder symbolhistorische Betrachtungen, sondern primär ökokritische sowie literatur- und kulturkritische Anschauungen berührt werden. So wird durch die Literaturwissenschaft die Bedeutung der Natur, im Besonderen des Wassers, ihre Zerstörung durch den Menschen und die damit einhergehende Selbstzerstörung hervorgehoben. A-2.4 Daniela Roschinski (Ohio State University, Columbus) Das beseelte Meer: Die Meeresmetaphorik und ihre Bedeutung in Anna Seghers Aufstand der Fischer von St. Barbara Beim Lesen von Anna Seghers Novelle Aufstand der Fischer von St. Barbara lässt sich ohne weiteres eine Affinität der Autorin zum Meer erkennen, zu dem sie sich schon als Kind hingezogen fühlte. Obwohl Seghers einmal in einem Gespräch mit der Autorin Christa Wolf betonte, dass sie nicht gern über Wirklichkeiten schrieb, die sie liebte und dennoch nicht eingehend kannte, spielt diese Liebe für diese doch unergründliche und unbeherrschbare

7 Wirklichkeit eine gewisse Rolle in ihrem Werk. Sie war begeistert vom Meer und dem Wasser an sich und obwohl sie eine Reserviertheit gegenüber diesem Naturelement zeigte, fand das Meer wegen seiner Unergründbarkeit, seiner räumlichen und zeitlichen Unendlichkeit dennoch immer wieder den Weg in ihre Literatur. Betrachtet man das Werk Seghers, wird deutlich, dass auch hier das Meer in den bekannten Dimensionen erscheint. Für Seghers ist die Oberfläche des Meeres ebenfalls weit und grenzenlos und die Tiefe des Meeres unabschätzbar. Das Meer ändert sich beständig und durch den unregelmäßigen Wechsel von ruhigem und rauem, wilden und stürmischen Wassern bleibt es kontinuierlich für den Menschen, der machtlos diesem Element gegenübersteht, unbewältigt und dessen Gewaltigkeit unvorhersehbar. Doch in Seghers Werk gibt es noch eine weitere literarische Konzeption und metaphorische Benutzung des Meeres. In der Forschung maß man der Meeresmetaphorik und ihre Bedeutung in Anna Seghers Werken bisher kein Interesse bei. In näherer Betrachtung der Novelle Aufstand der Fischer von St. Barbara lässt sich des weiteren erkennen, dass Seghers über die bloße Darstellung des Meeres als Naturgewalt hinaus geht und ihm sprachlich Leben einhaucht. In diesem Sinn scheint in der Novelle nicht nur das Meer beseelt und wesenhaft, sondern auch Objekte und ein weiteres Naturelement, die mit dem Meer assoziiert werden können, wie der Leuchtturm, die Dampfer, und der Wind. Das Meer, das Seghers in seiner Gewaltigkeit und Unbeherrschbarkeit nicht als Wirklichkeit beschreibt, sondern als topographische Landschaft, scheint auch lebendig und als Gefährten des Protagonisten und als Wegbegleiter der Revolution personifiziert. Diesen Aspekt, in Hinblick auf den sprachlichen, literarischen und metaphorischen Gebrauch des Meeres in Seghers Novelle, möchte ich in diesem Aufsatz beschreiben und näher untersuchen. A 3: Representations of Water in 19 th Century American and English Literature CHAIR: C.A. Cranston A-3.1 Leland S. Person (University of Cincinnati, USA) Transparent-Eyeballs: The Paradox of Seeing Through Water in Nineteenth- Century American Fiction I wish to examine a master trope of nineteenth-century American literature a trope of transparency that we know most famously from Ralph Waldo Emerson s epiphany in Nature (1836). The epiphany that Emerson enjoys All mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball. The currents of the Universal Being circulate through me epitomizes the spiritual and epistemological goals of 19 th -century romantic writers. Emerson posits the possibility of perfect vision in this passage vision that renders the world of things transparent so that the visionary can see through that world, Platonically considered, to the world of Ideas. However ideal such a vision may be, it runs counter to much ecological thinking in which it is just the resistant otherness of things in nature that the ecologist wishes to respect in a subject-subject rather than subject-object relationship. In this paper I propose to examine several literary examples of transparency scenes in James Fenimore Cooper s The Pioneers, Melville s Moby-Dick, and Thoreau s Walden, in which characters look through water that has been rendered transparent. But these scenes end up demonstrating the paradoxes inherent in the concept of transparency. Upon peering through the first ice on Walden Pond, Thoreau discovers that transparency gives way almost immediately to various forms of mediation, until finally he finds himself looking back at himself through the mirror that the ice has formed. I am intrigued by this example of optical illusion, as well as by the tension Thoreau represents between his desire for transparency and his recognition that nature reflects the perceiving self. In a night-time fishing scene in The Pioneers, Cooper also renders the lake (Otsego) transparent to the penetrating gaze of Natty Bumppo, and he emphasizes the potential for sympathetic identification and mutual respect by having Natty reveal the secrets of the lake (including a rare vision of a giant fish) to Elizabeth Temple, the woman who will ultimately inherit the land around the lake, as well as the

8 responsibility for its stewardship. But the vision is only temporary attenuated by the darkness which Natty s lantern only momentarily illuminates and the visionary lesson seems lost when Natty himself spears the fish for dinner. Transparency, like a telescopic lens on a modern-day rifle, enhances the hunter s killing power. In The Grand Armada chapter of Moby-Dick, Herman Melville offers one of the most interesting examples of transparency, at least from an ecological point of view, as Ishmael describes the wondrous vision he beholds while in the midst of the large pod of whales into which their whale boat has been dragged ironically, by the whale they have harpooned. Melville goes an important step further in The Grand Armada, when Ishmael imagines the baby whales looking back at him actually, it turns out, looking through him, rendering him transparent. Seeing himself from the whales point of view as a bit of Gulf-weed in their new-born sight represents an ecological epiphany first, a cross-species identification (new-born whales are like new-born human babies), but then the reversal of the gaze, the re-imposition if you will of difference, Ishmael s recognition that he as human subject figures as nothing more than a bit of Gulf-weed in the young whales experience. This is an ecological epiphany: the acknowledgement of the other s independent being and subjectivity, the recognition that human being, human subjectivity, has only one place and that a small one in the ecosystem of natural, or universal, being. Truly one of the remarkable scenes in 19 th -century American literature. But it doesn t last, as the killing business of whaling suddenly re-intrudes itself in the form of another harpooned whale, trailing a loose cutting spade in whose line he has become entangled. Thrashing about, the whale wounds his fellow whales in the process of trying to free himself. A-3.2 Christine Gerhardt (Universität Dortmund) Sounding Together: Whitman s and Dickinson s Oceanic Ecotones Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are widely acknowledged as major American poets of the sea. Whitman knew, loved, and lived in close proximity to the sea, the shore, and their related activities, and, in Philip Greasley s words, [o]ne cannot read many pages of Whitman s poetry or prose without encountering references to the sea and those who sail it (472); while Dickinson, who famously claimed in a poem that she never saw the Sea (Fr800), is even considered to be the key figure and by far the greatest of all writers of the sea emerging in the last third of the nineteenth century (Stein 208). So far, however, most critics have focused on the sea s symbolic import in the work of these two writers. Yet for all their metaphorical suggestiveness, Whitman s and Dickinson s sea poems are also rich in environmentally resonant evocations of actual oceanic places, and frequently account for human ways of relating to the sea in historically and culturally specific ways. In this paper, I argue that in spite of their prominent interest in exploring the sea as bottomless symbolic space, both of them share a view of aquatic environments as palpable natural landscape and force. More specifically, I hope to show that at a time when an existing counter-voice to America s dominant attitude towards the natural world was gaining significant strength, the sea poetry of Whitman and Dickinson engages in an indirect intertextual conversation about the possibilities and limits of relating to the natural world. I focus on two poems that speak to each other in particularly resonant ways Whitman s As I Ebb d with the Ocean of Life and Dickinson s I started Early Took my Dog. Together, both poems engage the seashore as a natural-cultural space that pushes humans towards a more attentive, ethical relationship to the earth, toward the recognition of human existence as implicated in and dependent on nature, and a view of sea as an immeasurably complex, forceful, even disruptive system that exists on its own terms and defies imaginary let alone physical control. A-3.3 Christa Grewe-Volpp (Universität Mannheim, Germany) I found myself in smooth water : Margaret Fuller s Summer on the Lakes Summer on the Lakes (1844) is Margaret Fuller s report of a journey to the western frontier undertaken in 1843, to the Great Lakes and the Illinois prairies. Her travelogue is framed by two experiences with water falls: she begins her adventure at Niagara Falls searching for the sublime, but fearing a savage Indian behind every bush, and she ends her journey with a canoe trip down some rapids on the Island of Mackinaw, guided by two Indian

9 men whom she trusts completely. How did this conversion come about? Fuller, a transcendentalist, went West to get a poetic impression of the country, to see the new settlements, the wilderness, and the indigenous population for herself, basing her expectations on transcendentalist notions of self-reliance and spiritual self-fulfillment. As a feminist, she wanted to test her theories of feminine self-culture and apply them to the lives of frontier women. Confronted with the real world (as opposed to book knowledge), she had to modify many of her convictions. In this paper I want to explore how the issues of transcendentalism, feminism and the so-called Indian question are linked to a journey on water and on specific experiences with water, how the perception and actual feel of water -- of the falls, lakes and rivers -- contribute to self-discovery and the discovery of a national identity A-3.4 John Parham (Thames Valley University, GB) Beyond Phenomenology: Water and Political Economy in Victorian Literature As part of a broader argument that takes issue with the phenomenological perspectives by which some ecocritics have rejected constructions of nature in science and political discourse, this paper will explore how two Victorian literary figures, John Ruskin and Gerard Manley Hopkins, came, through writing about water, to form prototypical ecological philosophies. I will begin by tracing the parallels between Ruskin s developing discussion of water in the five volumes of Modern Painters, and writings by contemporary ecologists such as Colin Tudge (Global Ecology (1991)) and Gerhard Lichtenthäler (Political Ecology and the Role of Water (2003)). Turning, then, to explore the influence and echoes of Ruskin in the descriptions of water contained in The Journals of Gerard Manley Hopkins the middle section of the paper offers an ecocritical reading of a Hopkins poem, Inversnaid, that describes the course of a burn near Loch Lomond in Scotland. Drawing, also, on Rod Giblett s Postmodern Wetlands (1996), it will be argued that the poem, that encapsulates Tudge s notion of water as the sculptor of ecosystems, is not so much a romantic, phenomenological description of nature but an articulation of the ecological perspectives slowly emerging from Victorian scientific discourse. Highlighting that Hopkins often focused upon water (particularly river pollution) in critiques of Victorian industrialism, the last section of the paper will return to Ruskin. It will be argued, in implicit critique of phenomenological perspectives, that in Fors Clavigera Ruskin developed his ideas arriving at an understanding of water as central to ecological political economy that parallels (for example) Lichtenthäler. WORKSHOPS B + Poster Session: Tierwelt der Feuchtgebiete Kärntens (Karin Smole, ARGE Naturschutz Kärnten) Samstag, Saturday, 1:30-3pm B 1: Representations of Water in an International Comparative Perspective II CHAIR: Christa Grewe-Volpp B-1.1 Marta Dorigo Salamon (University of Udine, Italy) Water in ancient society: its representation in legends, folk tales or fairy Tales In ancient society it was common for the family to stay together, during the evenings, to listen to elder s stories, to family s stories or to professional and sacred storyteller.

10 What we now called oral literature was something more than pleasure: the tales gave information about daily life, about one s moral conduct, about dangerous places, about foreign country or far away land. They were or at least were believed to be true tales. And indeed as each form of literature, they did represent the society s imaginary. As it is clear that literature is the mirror of reality s idea of the folk who produce it, it s quite strange taking notice how water which is now more and more precious and rare represented so long ago something so dangerous. Water was indeed something very common and it was probably taken for granted. It should be useful thinking about how society that has never had dry spell considered water also as a calamity, for example intense rains or too impetuous rivers. Various evidences from fairy tales, legends, mythological tales, and folk tales within the European environment will be considered. It will be point out how water was considered most as a feminine symbol, therefore dangerous for men but not for women. For example it is a common belief that beautiful or ugly women do live inside, or under, water and that they usually carry away a mortal man to bring him to their realm to become king or just a slave. Moreover water was considered sacred. Although there was so much abundance of it, it has been nevertheless for long time honoured. As ancient society did understand, maybe better than us, the richness our Mother Earth gives us, is sacred and precious. Water could have healing properties, could repair wounds, and could save from death. We will consider tales about water of life or, for someone, of death: as something sacred, dedicated to Gods could be dangerous for envious and insincere people. The paper will also point out the tales homogeneity within the European country. B-1.2. Kwaku Asante-Darko (The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg) The Ecological Significance of Asante Literary Construction of Water This paper addresses the role of literature in the sustainable management of water resources in a pre-literate community of the Asante (Ashanti) of Ghana, West Africa. Commenting on the knowledge of traditional oral societies in the management of natural resources the Brundtland Report commissioned by the United Nations Organization in 1987 noted that: Their [traditional ecological knowledge] very survival has depended upon their ecological awareness and adaptation These communities are repositories of vast accumulations of traditional knowledge and experience that links humanity with their ancient origins. Their disappearance is a loss for the larger society, which could learn a great deal from their traditional skills in sustainably managing very complex ecological systems. It is a terrible irony that as formal development reaches more deeply into rainforests, deserts, and other isolated environments, it tends to destroy the only cultures that have proved able to thrive in these environments. i Linked to the above citation, the general purpose of this paper can be summarized in three brief sentences: among the people of my community, the Asante (Ashanti) of Ghana, West Africa: 1) there are texts of traditional oral literature which constitute an enormous repository of environmental knowledge on water. 2) Today, this knowledge is generally left out of current efforts that seek to address issues of environmental degradation. 3) If explained, endorsed, adapted, and officially integrated into the notion of development, this knowledge could make a far-reaching positive impact on the control of environmental degradation of water resources and hence, the promotion of socio-economic development. Focusing on traditional Asante (Ashanti) community, my paper, therefore, evaluates the pedagogical role of the content of folklore in traditional oral education as regards water resources. It undertakes a literary analysis which reveals the type of values, attitudes, and knowledge embedded in a selection of some mythologies, beliefs, rituals, proverbs, poems, and other genres of folklore which contain traditional social constructs of water among the Asante. It is hope that this analysis will help not only to explain the pre-colonial Asante construction of water, but will equally help to provide material that could facilitate the invigoration and expansion of existing environmental policy and practice by ensuring that appeals for environmental action reach rural communities through concepts, metaphors, holophrases, beliefs, and discourses which are familiar and comprehensible to the culturespecific perceptions of the local communities concerned. (1)

11 ( 1) A report in 1987 by the United Nations Committee on the Environment and Development. The report was led by the Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland. It was entitled: Our common Future (World Commission on Environment and Development 1987). Cited By David Suzuki, Finding a New Story, in Darrel Addison Posey (ed), Cultural and Spiritual Values of Biodiversity: A Complementary Contribution to the Global Biodiversity Assessment, London: United Nations Environmental Programme, Intermediate Technology Publications, 1999, p. 72. B-1.3. Kadri Tüür (University of Tartu, Estonia) Water s three states in Ice Book by Juhan Smuu Juhan Smuul was one of the most widely known and translated Soviet Estonian authors. Originally from a poor islanders family, he gained popularity after the WWII first as a poet, later as a story-teller and playwright. He got Lenin s Prize for publicist prose in 1961 for Ice Book, his diary written during a trip to Antarctic as a member of Soviet polar expedition. The poetics of ice deserts have lured remarkable numbers of nature writers and theorists. Juhan Smuul s approach to the topic is unusual within the framework of this tradition in many ways. On the background of his descriptions there always gleam the writer s colourful personality and the archaic mental atmosphere of his home island, Muhu, that moulded the former. Smuul is one of the most recognised masters of verbal seascape in Estonian literature. His depictions of ocean in Ice Book include a strong physical aspect. The bodily contact with water gives an extra dimension to the understanding of this part of nature, uncontrollable by humans. Ice triggers Smuul s fantasy. The comparisons made to characterise icebergs are eloquent and unorthodox, revealing the presence of strong rural common sense. Water in the form of fog and perspirations has given life to several of mythologised literary concepts developed by Smuul, most notable of which being The Big Grey, or the sea sadness. A brief discussion of the three states of water in Ice Book is accompanied with the excerpts from German and English translations of the book. B 2: The Politics of Water Chair: Serenella Iovino B-2.1. Stefan Deconinck, (KUB University of Brussels, Belgium) Ideology in Israeli water policies, and its impact on regional security. The natural environment of Israel sets its limits on water use for economic development, domestic needs and preservation of nature. Since most of water used in Israel originates from transboundary resources, water policies are not merely limited to management of water resources but interfere with and become part of international politics. Despite multilateral and bilateral peace initiatives, relations between Israel and its neighbours are still based on suspicion and animosity. So are issues related to water resources, which have become one of the core differences between Israel and Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. In Israel, a western-oriented country with a similar package of needs and water uses, water therefore is considered a highly strategic asset. Altering its access to its present water resources, no matter the quantity involved, will be considered a casus belli, as prime minister Ariel Sharon warned the Lebanese government on the Wazzani river issue in the autumn of Water policies in Israel have a strong ideological basis. Nearly 60 years after the founding of the country and more than a century after the first migration from Europe, Zionism remains a major justification in decision making in the field of water resources and water management. Making the desert bloom still is the creed to for allocating the largest share of water to agriculture, while the economic importance of this sector is minimal. As such, water is essential to the Zionist ideal of making Israel a safe haven for Jews in the world, showing the

12 ability to absorb new immigrants and provide them with a viable and green environment. Touching the water resources directly touches state ideology, and therefore threatens state security. However, voices are raised in Israeli society, which question the interpretation of Zionism in the 21 st century. The outcome of the discussion on Post-Zionism might provide a new appraisal on the essence of water policies as part of the development of the country. In its turn, this might impact the appraisal of water as an asset of external (regional) security. In this presentation, we will focus on the consequences of ideologically based water policies in Israel, with regard to both internal affairs and external relations. The issue of the current debate on (Post-)Zionism as a change in ideology (can we call it regime change?) in Israel will be discussed, and its impact on internal and external policies and security will be assessed. B-2.2. Johann Tempelhoff (North-West University, South Africa) The hidden power of water in the Southern African irrigation furrow One of the basic areas of interaction between water as natural resource and human societies as agents of cultural transformation, manifests clearly is the technology of irrigation. In Africa at least 66% of the available water is generally used for purposes of irrigation. For more than 4000 years irrigation has secured food supplies for humans on a continent that is noted for its relative shortage of sufficient natural water supplies. In the case of Southern Africa there is a paucity of archaeological information about indigenous irrigation systems. In the nineteenth century colonial pioneers of irrigation summarily discarded references to any Africans using the technology of irrigation. In the paper it is contested that these are false perceptions. An attempt will be made to given an exposition of how successive waves of settlers in the predominantly arid subcontinent tried their hand at irrigation. As a cultural activity irrigation is of particular importance. In the first half of the twentieth century, the German historian, Karl Wittfogel ( ), posited major theoretical pointers on the manner in which the development of hydraulic societies influenced politics, economics and social activities in Chinese history. In the paper some of his philosophical observations will be considered in African contexts. Attention will be given to the manner in which the transformation of water as natural resource created a platform for cultivating political power and the manner in which Southern African societies, from the ancient San (Bushmen) to contemporary commercial farmers, have shaped their destinies in Southern Africa with the assistance of irrigation technologies. B-2.3. Hrovje Petric (University of Zagreb, Croatia) Drava River Multiple Borderlands in the Early Modern Period" My basic research interests are directed towards an area of multiple borderlands between the Habsburg Monarchy, the Ottoman Empire and the Venetian Republic in the Early Modern Period. Next to the Triplex Confinium proper (todays central Croatia) where those three imperial powers were clashing for several centuries, mostly through constant skirmishes and small war, I developed a special interest in the region of today's northern Croatia, south Hungary and east Slovenia the Drava river valley. This region was throughout the Early Modern Period mostly under the rule of the Habsburg dynasty, though belonging to various Kingdoms and historical Provinces or Lands (Hungarian, Croatian-Slavonian Kingdom, Inner- Austrian Lands). Great parts of the valley were from the 1520s conquered by the Ottomans. Due to the Ottoman presence, the region experienced similar patterns of instability, desolation and destruction as the one in central Croatia. It was reflected in the increased militarization of the area, the creation of defense systems known under the name of Military Borders, destruction of agriculture, shifting of traditional trade routs to distant and more secure areas, huge migratory waves from and across the region and, importantly, the increased degradation of urban centers and even free royal cities to military posts. Civil urban structures started slowly to recover only from the 17th century. In addition, this entire region along the river Drava was exposed to flooding and constant and rather wide-ranging changes of Drava river

13 course. The shifts of the main stream could happen even in yearly intervals, creating additional marshy lands, ruining settlements or parts of settlements, disabling agricultural activity, destroying important buildings in towns and villages, changing the administrative affiliation of various settlements, etc. In the times of constant war insecurity and the shortage of money and organization, river banks could not be entrenched, even less in times when they were controlled by the Ottoman fleet. Therefore, entire Drava eco-system and mentioned political circumstances had a dominant influence to the life of the people in the region, and to the urban and rural structure in the area. This paper deals with interrelations between man and his environment on the border between the Habsburg and the Ottoman Empires in early modern period. This borderline region was called Podravina multiple borders, as it had beside the imperial borders a number of internal frontiers as well. For a case study, Koprivnica multiple borders, I took the town of Koprivnica area. This territory covers the northern part of what was left from medieval Križevci County (part of Croato-Slavonnian kingdom included in the Habsburg Monarchy), and northern part of Slavonnian Military Border (Varaždin Border Generalate). This territory spreads out to a part of Hungarian county Zala (alongside the rivers Mura and Drava), as well as the county Somogy. This research should also cover the borderline territories of the Ottoman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, alongside the river Drava. In todays modern era, the territory being researched is currently inside 4 different European states: Austria, Slovenia, Hungary and Croatia. We need to emphasize that the wider environment of Drava River in the 16th and 17th century used to belong to 3 imperial systems Habsburg, Ottoman and Venetian, and it would be advisable to take this regional context into the overall picture. This research is based on both publicized and unpublicized sources. However, the results of historiography were accepted and included in this paper. During the 16th and 17 th century, this region witnessed many events and was influenced by them as well. This paper does not focus on all possible questions a researcher might come up with, but rather on those issues, which influenced the changes in environment in territory surrounding the town of Koprivnica, today being located in northwestern part of Croatia, right next to the state border with Hungary. B-2.4. Aurelio Angelini, Dott.ssa Anna Re (IULM University Milan, Italy) Water, Italy, and Human Rights It has been calculated that the shortage of water causes the death of 2.2 million people every year. By billion people will not have access to water. Water shortages and crises, once rare events affecting just the poorest regions on our planet, are now disrupting even highly developed countries such as Italy. The paper will examine the situation in Italy and it will emphasise the differences which characterized the country. In particular, the South and the islands (Sardinia and Sicily) suffer from water shortage much more than the North of the country because of geographical, climatic but also social and political circumstances. Thus, the last part of the paper will concentrate on the necessity to consider water as a right with reference to Italian writers who wrote about that. B 3: Representation of Water in German Literature Chair: Joachim Fischer B-3.1. Wendy Skinner (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany) Portrayals of the River Elbe as a Scene of Natural and Political Disaster in Contemporary German Poetry Der Elbe bei Dresden sieht man den Atlantik nicht an / und nicht die Gezeiten. All rivers may flow to the sea, yet the Grenzfluß Elbe of Barbara Köhler s Deutsches Roulette, written in Dresden during the last years of the GDR, refuses even the slightest hint of freedom in the form of tidal change. The river points teasingly in the direction of a necessarily existent yet unattainable, freedom. Elsewhere it becomes a dismal metaphor for the GDR chapter of

14 German history: je knapper / bemessen die Oberfläche, desto grundloser die Tiefe. / Wer sich fallen läßt, geht zu Grunde. This ambivalence between the enticing mystery and yet inherent danger of the river is echoed fourteen years later in Durs Grünbein s Porzellan (2005). Apparently idyllic depictions of the Jungfrau Elbe are cast into doubt by the poet s suspicion that its striking s shape might have guided the bomber squadrons of 1945 towards their target. But this is not the only threat Grünbein s Elbe poses to its city: Elbe, träger Fluß, früh auf den Leim gegangen / Bin ich dir. Sah, schlammumspült, das Elternhaus. Grünbein may be referring to a childhood experience, yet the catastrophic potential of the River Elbe is all too fresh in our minds. In the summer of 2002, the river burst its banks in several places, seriously flooding 60 towns and districts, in which 100,000 people lost their homes and 15 their lives. Politicians anxious to win the forthcoming election were to be seen sporting raincoats and wellington boots, wading gingerly through their voters ruined existences. Indeed, alone the ruling opinion in the media that Gerhard Schröder s reaction to the floods was a deciding factor in the election result demonstrates the power that nature still has in even the most unexpected areas of life, despite our increasingly urban lifestyle. Human responsibility for the 2002 floodings is one subject of Volker Braun s poem on the disaster. We humans, the poet reprimands, sind nah am Wasser gebaut / Und verdichten den Boden / Undurchlässigste / Kreaturen ( Die sächsische Flut 2002 ). Elsewhere in this poem, two disasters to befall Dresden in the last 60 years: the bombing of 1945 and the flooding of 2002, are juxtaposed through the traditionally aesthetic realm of the river. The paper will demonstrate the need for a reassessment of nature as an aesthetic category due to alterations in our concepts of the natural: poetry has remained the aesthetic realm it always has been, yet nature is changing rapidly, mostly due to human interference. The affinity hitherto taken for granted between nature and poetry is thus rendered invalid, resulting in poetry about nature often being dismissed as sentimental cliché. By examining poems in which the Elbe is given the function of an aesthetic vehicle for the depiction of natural and political disaster, the paper will explore methods with which various contemporary poets are dealing with this predicament. B-3.2. Uwe Seja (University of Cambridge, GB) Water, Scarcity, and Economics in Theodor Storm's Die Regentrude (1864) The paper proposes to study Theodor Storm's Kunstmärchen Die Regentrude in the context of mid-nineteenth century economic discourse in Germany. Following the publication of Wilhelm Roscher's Grundriß zu Vorlesungen über die Staatswirthschaft. Nach geschichtlicher Methode in 1843, the so-called Historical Schools began to exert growing influence on the debate about the rise of industry and capitalism in Germany. Rejecting both classical Political Economy and revolutionary Socialism, economists like Bruno Hildebrand, Karl Knies, and Gustav Schmoller sought to develop a theoretical and political alternative to inherited thought models by emphasising collective welfare and cultural cohesion. In their project, historically matured social forms were presented as a viable and stable alternative to the individualism, materialism, and cosmopolitanism which they associated with (British) Liberalism and Manchesterism. I wish to argue that Theodor Storm's narrative of water scarcity and economic change relates to this debate in important ways: demonstrating the impact on social stability of laissez-faire behaviour, Storm aligns himself with a tradition of thought that is deeply sceptical of the new economy. Idealised historic forms of cultural organisation are presented as being superior to strategies of individual profit maximisation, and mythical knowledge as superior to rationalistic calculation. Moving from a realist environment of scarcity to the supernatural realm of the fairy tale and back again, Die Regentrude explores cultural possibilities beyond the utilitarian principles of the bourgeois world. In Storm's description, the antinomy of traditionalism and capitalist rationality can only be resolved "if high and low come together"; the narrative appropriately ends in a marriage of rich and poor, with water supply restored at pre-crisis levels. In the wider context of nineteenth-century literature, the paper argues that an inclusion into literary criticism of the long neglected tradition of Historical Economics has the potential of opening new perspectives on canonical texts.

15 B-3.3. Axel Goodbody (University of Bath, UK) Water and Women: Mermaids in Late 20 th -century German Writing This paper will compare the reconfiguring of myths, legends and Romantic motifs in mermaid figures, and their use as vehicles for voicing nature, in three texts: Ingeborg Bachmann s Undine Geht (1961), Volker Braun s Bodenloser Satz (1991) and Karen Duve s Regenroman (1999). Water has traditionally been conceived of as a female element. Imaged as mother and lover, it has served as an expression of the male wish to dominate nature, but equally of anxieties and guilt feelings. Holding out the promise of ecstatic union, and reconciliation of human culture and nature, mind and body, mermaids, nixes, nymphs and sirens fuse gender with environmental issues and invite psychoanalytical interpretations. These three dimensions are present in varying degrees in each of the texts examined. Bachmann s short prose monologue is an indictment of patriarchal society, highlighting alienating conventions of bourgeois life. However, acknowledging the value of human reason, language and mind, it provides glimpses of an alternative relationship with nature and women, and ends with a plea for reconciliation. Braun s complex prose poem foregrounds the environmental dimension with images of river pollution and the destruction resulting from open cast mining. Women are here wronged and avenging forces associated with the body and an African sensuality lacking in modern civilisation. For all its humour and ironic detachment, Duve s bestselling novel conveys a powerful feminist message and prompts reflection on contemporary attitutes towards nature through its echoes of pastoral narratives and borrowings from the mermaids of Romantic literature. Secondary Literature Gabrielle Bessler, Von Nixen und Wasserfrauen, Cologne 1995 Hartmut Böhme, Natur und Subjekt, Frankfurt 1988 (ed.), Kulturgeschichte des Wassers, Frankfurt 1988 Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (ed), (ed.), Wasse. Elemente des Naturhaushalts 1, Cologne 2000 Klaus J. Heinisch (ed.), Der Wassermensch. Entwicklungsgeschichte eines Sagenmotifs, Stuttgart 1981 Frank Reiner Max (ed.), Undinenzauber. Geschichten und Gedichte von Nixen, Nymphen und anderen Wasserfrauen, Stuttgart 1991 Kate Rigby, Topographies of the Sacred. The Poetics of Place in European Romanticism, Charlottesville and London 2004 Irmgard Röbling (ed.), Sehnsucht und Sirene: Vierzehn Abhandlungen zu Wasserphantasien, Pfaffenweiler 1992 Simon Schama, Landscape and Memory, New York and London 1995 Anna Maria Stuby, Liebe, Tod und Wasserfrau: Mythen des Weiblichen in der Literatur, Wiesbaden 1992 Klaus Theweleit, Männerphantasien. Frauen, Fluten, Körper, Geschichte, Frankfurt 1977 WORKSHOPS C + Poster Session: Aquadidactic Projects in Austria and India (Angelika Staats, Wasserschule Hone Tauern, Kärnten) Samstag, Saturday, 3:30-5pm C 1: Representation of Water in an International and Comparative Perspectives III Chair: Sylvia Mayer

16 C-1.1. S. Murali (Pondicherry University, India) LIFE LINES: Water, Life, and the Indian Experience Cultural Meanings, Social Significance and Literary Implications My presentation would be an attempt to examine the socio-cultural significance and the imaginary implications of water as vital element, aesthetic metaphor, image as well as symbol. Very much like its fluidity and reflective transparency, this vital element plays a significant role in human imagination, and socially constructed reality alike. It conceals and reveals at the same time. Bereft of water there is no life, however, too much of it hastens human casualty. My presentation is divided into two parts: the first is of a general kind that seeks to examine the social and spiritual significance of water in the multi-planed Indian context, while the second is of a textual kind focusing on a work of literature that aims to problematise cultural and historical meanings and the literary implications of water. The chosen text is a work of fiction. Water has been endowed with vital significance all through human history. Civilsation and culture however disparate they are-- could be seen to be often so intimately linked to this dynamic fluid. From everyday ablutions to the highest symbolic levels the flow of water assumes infinite dimensions in every people s history. It cuts across human unconscious and the rational political and social systems alike. Life in present day India is multifaceted and multi-layered, and often revolves round many planes at once one could easily discern the profound relationship between religious beliefs and ingrained social structures and behavioural patterns. Even contemporary cinema and politics consciously or subconsciously veer in and out of the mythical and the puranic often enough to the advantage of those in power and to the severe handicap of those underprivileged and over-exploited. Societal reality in present day India is reconstructed and deconstructed at will by the powerful memory of the past however, often enough, only the hollow beliefs and superstitions survive as designs and counter designs of signification. The profundity of the Vedic poetic vision is now virtually unrecognisable in the macro world however, it survives at the micro levels. Water, along with fire and earth is one of the elements that wield powerful religious and spiritual connotations not merely in dominant Hindu ceremony and ritual but also in the other structures of beliefs and practice. My presentation intends to close examine the significance of this life-line the trace, meaning and implication that water evokes as it flows in and out of the lives of people and places in India. Of course, I would also seek its non-human relevance and bearing. When the first part of my paper seeks to understand the multiple planes and manifold significance that the elemental sign of water would evoke, the second part would be a close reading of a work of fiction Water-A Novella originally written in Tamil by Ashokamitran. 4 This work is examined as a social documentary that unfolds over a period of time in a small village in South India. As the name would suggest the entire theme of the work revolves round the image of water real as well as spiritual and imagined. Even though the theme chosen could easily overflow its fictional boundaries, and end up even as a mere chutnification of history, [the phrase is Rushdie s] the writer has dexterously contained his material in an artistic manner focusing for the most on a specific locality and streamlining his tale to a fine narrative point. The story flows in fits and starts. After all, a tiny streamlet could also exhibit the force and ferocity of a tidal wave. C-1.2. Louis Kern (Hofstra University, Hempstead, USA) "'Too Wild for Earth, Too Restless for the Sky': Nature and the Imagination of the Sublime--the Awful-Aweful Experience of Niagara Falls" When Louis Hennepin's A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America (1691) appeared, it provided the first eye-witness account and included the earliest known illustration 4 Ashokamitran, Water A Novella, translated into the English by Lakshmi Holmstrom, (New Delhi:Katha,2001)

17 of Niagara Falls. Together, the engraving, "the Falls of Niagara," and his verbal description of the falls established the archetype into the nineteenth centrury for the imaginative construction of America's greatest natural wonder. His vision of the "wonders of this prodigious frightful fall" stressed the untamed wildness of the cascade in an era before industrialization and organized recreational tourism had overwhelmed its natural beauty and power. With the completion of the Erie Canal (1825), however, the face of the falls was rapidly changed. From a wild, pastoral environment, it emerged as America's most popular tourist destination. The power of the river was harnessed to run large paper and textile mills and other manufactories. Railways linking Miagara and Buffalo were constructed, and the world's first suspension bridge, linking the U.S. and the Canadian sides of the river was constructed (1855). Symbolic of the transformation of the Falls from aesthetic to explitative use was the changing of the name of the village of Niagara Falls to Manchester (1825). This paper will focus on the raction to commercial and industrial exploitation of the Falls and the consequent destruction of their natural beauty. It will address the emregence of an early environmentalist consciousness in the establishment of a New York State Commission (1879) to reclaim the ntural riparian environment. Modelling its approach to the falls and river on the programs that had led to the establishment of Yosemite State Park (1864) and Yellowstone National Park (1872), the Commission sought to recalim the natural watercourse from the ravages of private enterprise. Stressing relcamationn over preservation, and guided by a proposal framed by Frederick Law Olmstead, the Commissio's work led to the establishment of the Niagara State Reservation in Primary sources for the paper will include: Jasper T. Gardner's Special Report of the New York State Survey on the Preservation of the Scenery of Niagara Falls (1880), Rowland Hill's Letter... Relative to the International Park or State Reservation at Niagara Falls (1880), J.B. Harrison's The Condition of Niagara Falls and the Measures Needed to Preserve Them (1882), the Annual Report of the Commissioners of the State Reservation at Niagara Falls (1886), Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vsux's General Plan for the Improvement of the Niagara Reservation (1887), the Niagara Businessmen's Association's The Water Power of the Falls of Niagara Applied to Manufacaturing Purposes (1890), the U.S. Congress, House Committee on Rivers and Harbors, Preservation of Niagara Falls (1906), Charles Dow's How to Protect Niagara (1906), and The State Reservation at Niagara: A History (1914), and the Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmstead papers. C-1.3 Hannes Bergthaller (National Taipei University of Technology, Taiwan) Too fragile to exist in a world of crushing force Rachel Carson s The Edge of the Sea, Hans Blumenberg, and the Absolutism of Reality Environmentalist writers like to see the history of the West since the beginning of the Modern Age in terms of the ascendency of an imperial, hubristic anthropocentrism. German philosopher Hans Blumenberg, however, has told this story as one of disillusionment and humiliation: whereas older cosmologies had claimed a central and safely enclosed place for humankind, the natural sciences after Copernicus progressively disclosed an infinite universe indifferent or even hostile to the human need for a meaningful order. Natural theology and Romanticism helped to avert the threat of insignificance for some time, but with the rise of Darwinism, which replaced transcendent agency with blind mechanism, they, too, appeared to have lost their power to shelter humankind from contingency. Popular ecology during the 20 th century can be seen as another effort to reinvest the material world with human meaning and thereby reconfigure it into a home. Rachel Carson is one of the most renowned representatives of this line of thought. In her books on marine biology and particularly in The Edge of the Sea, the ocean becomes the metaphorical site where the struggle between the meaninglessness of the inorganic world and the self-assertion of life plays itself out. The ocean figures multiply: on the one hand, it functions as a trope for the insignificance with which the surrounding vastness threatens to overwhelm living creatures, and against which they have to hold their own. On the other hand, it is employed as a metaphor both for the inviolability of the life process itself and for the power of the imagination to grasp the latter as an ordered totality: [W]e come to perceive life

18 as a force as tangible as any of the physical realities of the sea, a force strong and purposeful, as incapable of being crushed or diverted from its ends as the rising tide (Carson 1955: 239f). However, this cognitive achievement remains as precarious as life itself: The text oscillates between a lyrical mode, heavily indebted to the rhetorics of natural theology and Romanticism, in which the beauty of marine life gestures at transcendent meaning, and a strictly Darwinist account of its subject matter which continually threatens to obliterate the latter. In this paper, I want to demonstrate how this basic tension informs The Edge of the Sea. Following Blumenberg, I will read Carson s metaphors as a means of putting the absolutism of reality at a distance a means that, unlike the natural sciences, must rest on the principle of insufficient cause (Blumenberg 1981: 124). References: Blumenberg, Hans. Wirklichkeiten, in denen wir Leben. Stuttgart Carson, Rachel. The Edge of the Sea. London 1999 (1 st ed. 1955). C-1.4. Indr Žakevičien (Vytautas Magnus university, Kaunas, Lithuania) Lithuanian Mentality: Reflections on Water The aim of my paper Lithuanian Mentality: Reflections on Water" is to discuss the main issues of Ecocriticism, which is treated as one of the most perspective methods of literary research in the realm of interdisciplinary studies. Joseph Meeker and his book The Comedy of Survival: Studies in Literary Ecology started discussions about literary studies in relation with nature and ecology, and according to him literature is a specific phenomena, which distinguishes homo sapiens from other species of life, therefore one of the goals of Ecocriticism is to make clear, what is the main issue of literature having in mind the whole mankind and it s abilities to survive. From Lithuanian point of view water could be treated as water of life or water of death, depending of specific mythological contexts. We could make an assumption, that literature (the same as the language) could be treated as water for our souls, giving a chance for survival. Lithuanian mythology, folklore and so called professional literature can prove this easily. Another aspect of Ecocriticism mentioned in the paper is the concept of virtual brain projection, according to which our ego should be treated as a function of the environment. The relation of our ego and the river, the brook, the swamp or wetlands is rather interesting, though at first glance may seem too simple to discuss. The aspects of this relation will be analyzed here as well. One more important thing to discuss is emotional reactions of individuals, reflected on literary works. The problem of identity is inevitable here: do you feel yourself as a separate individual, or as a part of your environment? Positive or negative emotions must be related to the way you have chosen. Other problem is correlation of emotional attitudes and the concept of profit. All these aspects are being analyzed in the context of Lithuanian mythology in comparison with the works of Lithuanian emigrant author Albinas Baranauskas. His texts serve as really good illustration of the aspects mentioned above. The conclusion is very simple: a human being should be treated as a particular creature, ready to surrender and to acknowledge the authority of nature. Otherwise he is doomed to the situation we experience in our postmodern world.

19 C 2: Kulturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven Chair: Hannes Bergthaller C-2.1 Doris Hattenberger (Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt) Wasser rechtliche Betrachtungen Ziel des Beitrages soll es sein, im Wege eines Streifzuges durch die Rechtsordnung die vielfältigen Dimensionen des Wassers aufzuzeigen. Eine vergröbernde Betrachtung lässt vier Zielrichtungen der rechtlichen Ordnung des Wassers erkennen. Wasser ist zuallererst Lebensgrundlage. Es ist aber auch Gefahr, Wirtschaftsfaktor und Transportmedium. 1. Begriffe: Die rechtliche Ordnung des Wassers ist primär im Wasserrechtsgesetz festgelegt. Das WRG unterscheidet zwischen öffentlichen und privaten Gewässern; erstere sind Allgemeingut, dh es sind jedermann bestimmte, gemeinwohlverträgliche Nutzungen bewilligungsfrei gestattet. Private Gewässer werden als eigentumsfähig angesehen. Das Eigentumsrecht am privaten Gewässer ist Folge des Eigentums am Grund. Das private Verfügungsrecht ist allerdings ein stark beschränktes. Die begrenzte Verfügungsmacht ergibt sich zum einen schon aus der Beschaffenheit des Wassers. Wasser verdunstet oder fließt ab und entzieht sich somit seinem Eigentümer als Objekt der Verfügung wieder. Das ins Ausland abfließende Wasser entzieht sich der Gebietshoheit des Staates Österreich und damit auch den Regeln des WRG. Davon abgesehen ist das Verfügungsrecht wegen der elementaren Bedeutung des Wassers für alles Leben durch vielfältige rechtliche Beschränkungen ein sozial gebundenes. 2. Lebensgrundlage Wasser: Als unentbehrliche Grundlage allen Lebens muss die Verfügbarkeit des Wassers in qualitativer und quantitativer Hinsicht sichergestellt werden. Eine mengenmäßig ausreichende Versorgung wird dadurch sicherstellt, dass Wasserbenutzungen, die das öffentliche Interesse gefährden können, einer behördlichen Bewilligung bedürfen. Die erwähnten öffentlichen Interessen listet das Gesetz in 105 WRG einlässlich, wenn auch in nicht abschließender Form auf. Dazu zählen selbstredend auch die Sicherstellung der notwendigen Wasserversorgung und die Vermeidung jeglicher nachteiliger Beeinflussung der Wasserqualität. Die Wasserqualität wird einerseits durch bestimmte, im WRG festgelegte Verbote sowie durch Bewilligungspflichten für wassergefährdende Vorhaben geschützt, andererseits durch das Lebensmittelgesetz, das das Qualitätsniveau und dessen Kontrolle für das Lebensmittel Trinkwasser festlegt. 3. Wasser als Gefahr: Das Wasser als Gefahrenquelle bedarf der vorsorgenden Regulierung. Dazu zählen Maßnahmen der Wildbachverbauung ebenso wie Lawinenschutzbauten und sonstige Schutz- und Regulierungsbauten. Das Forstgesetz trifft Vorsorge, damit der Wald seine Schutzwirkung zur Erhaltung der Bodenkraft, zur Verhinderung der (durch Wassereintrag bedingten) Bodenabschwemmung und der Hangrutschung zu erfüllen vermag. 4. Wasser als Nutzobjekt: Wasser ist in vielen Industrien Produktionsfaktor. Die wegen seiner Unverzichtbarkeit als Grundlage für alles Leben angeordnete soziale Bindung ist Grenze der wirtschaftlichen Aktivität. Die begrenzte Ressource Trinkwasser wird in der letzten Zeit auch mehr und mehr als Wirtschaftsgut gesehen, das infolge seiner Knappheit in vielen Regionen Hoffnungen auf ökonomische Chancen weckt. Einem Ausverkauf des österreichischen Trinkwassers setzt das WRG Schranken. Eine Liberalisierung der Wasserversorgung lässt der geltende rechtliche Rahmen begrenzt zu. 5. Wasser ist Transportmittel: Die Ausnutzung der tragenden Kraft des Wassers in Form der Schifffahrt ist bei öffentlichen Gewässern wiederum als bewilligungsfreie Jedermannsbefugnis vorgesehen. C-2.2. Guido Fackler (Universität Würzburg, Germany) Wasser als Symbol technischer Selbstvergewisserung und Chiffre der Entschleunigung am Beispiel künstlicher Wasserstraßen Trotz einiger wirtschaftlich erfolgreicher Großschiffahrtsstraßen (Nord-Ostsee-Kanal) gelten Kanäle heute als beschauliche Technikdenkmäler einer überkommenen Industriekultur.

20 Indessen wurde bis ins 19. Jahrhundert der größte Teil des Warenverkehrs über künstlich angelegte Wasserstraßen abgewickelt. Sie erlebten ihre Blütezeit im Merkantilismus und in der Proto-Industrialisierung und vereinen als eine Art Meta-Technik komplexe technische, wirtschaftliche, soziale und kulturelle Systeme zu einem Ganzen. Hierbei kommt dem Wasser eine basale Bedeutung zu, die aus der Perspektive einer kultuwissenschaftlichen Technikforschung untersucht werden soll. Es wurde über große Strecken zugeleitet, in Stauseen gespeichert und überwand mittels Schleusenanlagen oder Schiffslifts Täler, Berge, Straßen und Flüsse. Freilich stellte die Bändigung, Umleitung und Hebung von Wasser nicht nur ein wasserbautechnisches Problem dar. Vielmehr konstituierten Kanäle zuvor wasserarme Kultur- und Naturlandschaften neu, implantierten dort ein maritimes Ambiente und galten gerade wegen der Beherrschung des flüssigen Guts Wasser als paradigmatische Symbole technischen Fortschritts. Dem soll die touristisch-stadtplanerische Wiederentdeckung von Kanälen in den letzten Jahrzehnten kontrastiv gegenübergestellt werden, um die veränderte Wahrnehmung und gewandelte kulturelle Aufladung der Wasserfläche Kanal herauszuarbeiten: Weil das spiegelnde Wasserbett Gemächlichkeit, Ruhe und anmutige Natürlichkeit vermittelt, konnte sie zur Chiffre eines entschleunigten Lebensstils avancieren, der sich in nostalgischen Hausboot-Touren wie in modern umgestalteten Canalsides (z.b. Manchester, London, Leeds) manifestiert. Quellen: Anleitungsschriften zur Wasserbaukunst seit der Frühen Neuzeit; Bildquellen (Gemälde, Zeichnungen, Pläne, Karten etc.); archivalische Quellen aus diversen Schiffahrtsund Kanalmuseen bzw. Archiven; Sekundärliteratur zur Thematik; Wahrnehmungsfahrten/Feldforschungen zu diversen Kanälen in Großbritannien, Italien, Frankreich, Österreich und Deutschland. Forschungskontext: Das vorgestellte Thema steht im Kontext des Habilitationsprjekts zum Thema Von der Last- zur Lustschiffahrt Kanal-Fieber.Kulturwissenschaftliche Technikforschung am Beispiel künstlicher Wasserstraßen an der Universität Würzburg. C-2.3. Jens Potschka (Universitaet Goettingen, Germany) Gottes Werkzeug oder auszubeutendes Element? Die Wahrnehmung des Wassers in hochmittelalterlichen Schriftquellen eine semantische Analyse Die Untersuchung der Wahrnehmung der Umwelt durch den Menschen hilft uns, kulturelle, soziale und ökonomische Phänomene besser verstehen zu können; aktuell wie auch in vergangenen Zeiten. Das Wasser war, nicht anders als heute, auch im Mittelalter vielen natürlichen und anthropogenen Einflüssen und Prozessen unterworfen, die vom Menschen höchst unterschiedlich wahrgenommen und interpretiert wurden. Die Schriftquellen bieten dafür einen zentralen Zugang. Anhand der mittelalterlichen Literatur lässt sich erkennen, inwieweit dem Menschen das Wasser als beherrschbar oder völlig unkontrolliert, Naturgesetzen oder göttlichem Willen folgend erschienen ist. Sie zeigt auch, ob Auffälligkeiten des Klimas, der Gewässerlandschaft und der Wassernutzung überhaupt wahrgenommen wurden. War eine Mühle einfach eine Mühle, oder wurde sie mit charakteristischen Merkmalen beschrieben? Archäologisch nachgewiesene regionale Veränderungen der Kulturlandschaft wie das Sinken des Grundwasserspiegels, die Zunahme der Fließgeschwindigkeit von Flüssen aufgrund zunehmender Erosion oder der so genannte Mühlenstau müssen eine bestimmte Wirkung auf den mittelalterlichen Menschen und seine Umweltwahrnehmung gehabt haben. Diese Wirkungen können in den schriftlichen Quellen zu Tage getreten sein. Innovative Studien zu der Wahrnehmung des mittelalterlichen Menschen sind rar, da dem Forschungsfeld enge Grenzen gesetzt sind. Die wissenschaftliche Vorgehensweise verbietet es, die heutigen Wahrnehmungsmuster auf Menschen früherer Epochen zu übertragen. Die unterschiedlichen sozialen, ökonomischen, gesellschaftlich-kulturellen und institutionell-rechtlichen Verhältnisse müssen sich in für uns kaum mehr nachvollziehbarer Weise auf die Sinneseindrücke der mittelalterlichen Menschen ausgewirkt haben. Es kann für die Forschung also nur darum gehen, sich in inter- oder besser transdisziplinärer methodischer