Introduccíon de la exposición virtual de Ricardo Rozzi et al., De lupas a telescopios: Explorando el microcosmos y el macrocosmos en los laboratorios bioculturales de Chile.

In this chapter of her virtual exhibition “Human-Nature Relations in German Literature,” Sabine Wilke examines forests and deforestation in works by Adalbert Stifter, Marlen Haushofer, and Elfriede Jelinek. For the German-language version of this exhibition, click here.

While English satire magazines mocked vegetarianism since the 1840s, the first German caricatures appeared some 30 years later. Early drawings often imagined that a vegetarian would gradually transform into a plant. Other recurring topics are the assumed correlation between (meatless) nutrition and (peaceful, fragile) physical appearance and character, as well as the debate over whether a meat-rich or a meat-free diet was better for human health.