Visuality and Representation in Didactic Epic (VIRIDE)

The rapid environmental changes impacting our societies in recent years have given literary studies new impetus to rethink the relationship between humans and nature. This has led to an increased focus on the non-human in literature e.g., animals, plants, or the environment. To show how literature adapts environmental topics and how these adaptations influence our perception of what is depicted, the potential of literary texts to enable readers to immerse themselves in the storyworld and thus to perceive the conveyed content more consciously is often investigated. Vivid forms of storytelling play an important role in this process: when reading a text, they challenge us to sensorially imagine what is being narrated as if we were experiencing it ourselves and, thus, involve us more thoroughly in the narrative. So far, such processes have mostly been discussed on the basis of literary examples from the recent past in many cases, the focus has been on texts describing the ecological impact of industrialization since the 19th century or merely in recent decades or years. From a historical perspective, however, the influence of humans on their environment has always been a hallmark of civilization and is thus also reflected in the art and cultural productions of the past. For this reason, the project described here focuses on the literature of Greco-Roman antiquity and, by applying the approaches mentioned above to ancient texts, attempts to gain new insights into the understanding of humans and nature in antiquity. It deals with depictions of the non-human (animals, plants, environment) in ancient didactic epic (e.g., the works of Hesiod, Nicander, Vergil, Nemesianus or Oppian) a literary genre that has, since its very beginning, been concerned with reflecting on the role of humankind in the world. By means of a comparative, diachronic analysis, the literary representation of non-human entities in scenes involving animals or nature in these works will be analyzed as an expression of the interactions between humans and their environment. In particular, the significance of a vivid, sensorially-stimulating narrative in these processes of literary mediation will be illuminated. Questions I aim to answer with this project include: 1. How are animals, plants, and the environment represented and functionalized in the didactic epic (as opposed to imagery related to humans)? 2. What does their representation tell us about the imagined relationship between the human and non-human in antiquity? 3. In what way does the vividness of the representation contribute to the readers engagement with the narrative or these topics in the communication of a message? 4. Do representations that concern the field of human-environment interaction display a special kind of vividness? What does this consist of and how is it activated? 5. How can an understanding of these phenomena inform our contemporary view on similar matters (e.g., in terms of ecological awareness)?

Project VIRIDE examines the literary representation of non-human elements in ancient didactic poetry and aims to provide new insights into the ancient conception of the relationship between humans and their environment in Graeco-Roman literature. Particularly, the study analyzes scenes involving animals or nature as expressions of the complex interactions between humans and nature inscribed in this literary genres (e.g. in the works of Hesiod, Nicander, Vergil, or Nemesianus). In particular, the project aims to shed light on the effect of a vivid depiction in modelling these relationships and their significance for the system of literary entertainment. Some of the fundamental questions addressed in this project are: How are animals, plants, and the environment represented and functionalized in didactic epics? What does their representation tell us about the imagined relationship between the human and non-human in these texts? Do representations that concern the field of human-environment interaction display a special kind of vividness? What does this consist of and how is it activated? How can an understanding of these phenomena inform our contemporary view on similar matters (e.g., in terms of ecological awareness)? The study aims to apply ecocritical and econarratological approaches to the analysis of ancient literature. It is based on a combination of two 'turns' in modern literary studies and promises new insights both into the design, function, and effect of literary vividness from a perspective informed by cognitive science ('cognitive turn') and into a non-human or post-human approach to ancient didactic poetry ('posthumanist turn'). In particular, the ancient concept of enargeia, a form of vivid representation that 'brings the things described before the reader's eyes', plays a key role. This and related theories can help to highlight the function of a sensorially stimulating depiction of nature-related content and its literary potential for both ancient and modern readers. The project draws on approaches that have recently gained popularity in humanities research but are only gradually being applied to the study of ancient literature. Its findings contribute to a better understanding of the role of vivid representations in conveying content (e.g. human-environment relationships) in ancient literature - and, beyond that, to a more comprehensive appreciation of ancient, pre-modern perspectives in the context of contemporary discourses.