Econarratology and Ecolinguistics: Complementary Tools for Ecocriticism?
Workshop
21.05.2025 12:00 – 14:00
Location: conference room, fourth floor, RCC
Organizers: Julia Ludewig, Judith Bopp
Ecolinguistics and econarratology are two exciting fields, stemming from linguistics and literary studies respectively. Even though both focus on environmental concepts, they have not interacted as much as they could. Ecolinguistics critiques forms of language that contribute to ecological destruction and searches for new forms of eco-positive discourse. Econarratology, in turn, chiefly analyzes literary narratives with an eye toward the representation of more-than-human worlds. In the first part of this hands-on workshop, participants will become familiar with essential concepts and methods of each discipline. In the second part, they apply their new knowledge by analyzing a sample text from both angles. Such analysis is a critical tool to reveal underlying framings, metaphors, salient or backgrounded themes, point-of-view, and agency effects.
The workshop is open to all who are interested. No prior experience in linguistics or literary studies is required. It is, however, also limited to 15 people. To sign up, please email pauline.kargruber@rcc.lmu.de.
The Presenters
Julia Ludewig is an associate professor of German at Allegheny College, USA. She is an interdisciplinary teacher-scholar who is fascinated by stories and how they shape societies. In both her academic and her poetic worlds, writing is her preferred mode of thinking through the things that matter.
Judith Bopp is a cultural geographer working on organic food movements in both rural and urban contexts. She joined the RCC as a research fellow in 2023. Having a background in linguistics as well, she is passionate about ecolinguistics and how to stimulate relatable narratives to live by.