To the Last Drop - Affective Economies of Extraction and Sentimentality

An examination of how forms of extractivism and gendered discourses of sentimentality are linked, combining affect studies and environmental humanities.

The romance of extraction underlies and partly defines Western modernity and our cultural imaginaries. Combining affect studies and environmental humanities, this volume analyzes societies' devotion to extraction and fossil resources. This devotion is shaped by a nostalgic view on settler colonialism as well as by contemporary »affective economies« (Sara Ahmed). The contributors examine the links between forms of extractivism and gendered discourses of sentimentality and the ways in which cultural narratives and practices deploy the sentimental mode (in plots of attachment, sacrifice, and suffering) to promote or challenge extractivism.

Auteur

Axelle Germanaz is a doctoral researcher in American Studies at Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.
Daniela Gutiérrez Fuentes is a doctoral researcher in American Studies at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany.
Sarah Marak is a doctoral research in American studies at Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.
Heike Paul (Prof. Dr.) is chair of American studies at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and director of the Bavarian American Academy in Munich. She is project leader of the Global Sentimentality Project and spokesperson of the research training group on »The Sentimental« at FAU. In 2018, she received the Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation.

Résumé
Besprochen in: https://katieritson.com, 07.12.2023