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Humans, Animals, and Nature: Ideas of a Natural and Harmonious (Co-)Existence

Humans, Animals, and Nature: Ideas of a Natural and Harmonious (Co-)Existence

In the nineteenth century, there was much debate about the question of which way of living could be regarded as “natural.” Caricatures on vegetarianism mock ideas of the “natural” relationship between animal and man, and draft utopian as well as dystopian visions of a vegetarian future.

Satirical Glimpses of the Cultural History of Vegetarianism

Vegetarianism as an alternative nutritional model is a controversial topic. Many contemporary arguments for and against a vegetarian way of life can be traced back to early discussions about vegetarianism in nineteenth-century media. This virtual exhibition sheds light on the first decades of the debate on meatless nutrition in German-speaking regions. In doing so, the exhibition adopts a special perspective: by examining vegetarianism as it is represented in caricatures, it is able to reconstruct the verbal and visual arguments used both in favor of as well as against the movement. The exhibition reflects upon the ambivalent public perception of vegetarianism at the time and, additionally, provides an amusing window into the wit and humor of the period.

Click here to read about the exhibition. The German version of this virtual exhibition can be found here.

Evi Zemanek and Sophia Burgenmeister

About the author

Zemanek, Evi
Zemanek, Evi

University of Freiburg, Germany

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Evi Zemanek is professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Freiburg (ALU), where she has taught German literature and intermedia studies since 2010. She holds a PhD in comparative literature from LMU Munich. Her main research interests lie within the fields of media ecology, intermedia and intercultural studies, ecocriticism, and multimedia environmental journalism. She has published broadly on the aesthetics of nature in various media, ecotopias, eco poetry, and, more generally, on the history of ecological thought and the poetics of “ecological genres.” Most recently, she has published on “sustainable media cultures” and edited (with U. Kluwick) an interdisciplinary book on sustainability (Nachhaltigkeit interdisziplinär. Konzepte, Diskurse, Praktiken, 2019). She is currently finishing a book on caricatures, which investigates the entanglements of media history and environmental history since the nineteenth century. Evi Zemanek is founder of the DFG-Network Ethik und Ästhetik in literarischen Darstellungen ökologischer Transformationen, a member of the DFG-Network Politiken der Idylle, as well as of the Upper Rhine Cluster for Sustainability Research, and of the Transatlantic Humboldt Network Environmental Humanities.

Burgenmeister, Sophia
Burgenmeister, Sophia

University of Freiburg, Germany

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Sophia Burgenmeister is currently writing her dissertation at the University of Freiburg (ALU), exploring the discourse and media history of meat consumption and vegetarianism. Her further research interests lie within the fields of climate communication, contemporary lyric poetry and intermediality. Her book Der “Blick auf Beowulf” – Eine Spurensuche zwischen Medialität und Materialität bei Thomas Kling und Ute Langanky (2018) focuses on the interplay of photography and lyric poetry. She has studied Philosophy and German Literature, Culture, and Media at the Universites of Freiburg and Nottingham and has worked as an editor for Philosophy, Literature, and Media Studies.

Browse the exhibition

Exhibition Overview
Introduction
“You Are What You Eat”
Humans, Animals, and Nature
Meat Ban
Lifestyle and Zeitgeist
Further Reading

“You Are What You Eat”: Stupid Vegetables and the Charm of the New

“You Are What You Eat”: Stupid Vegetables and the Charm of the New

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.

Satirical Glimpses of the Cultural History of Vegetarianism

Vegetarianism as an alternative nutritional model is a controversial topic. Many contemporary arguments for and against a vegetarian way of life can be traced back to early discussions about vegetarianism in nineteenth-century media. This virtual exhibition sheds light on the first decades of the debate on meatless nutrition in German-speaking regions. In doing so, the exhibition adopts a special perspective: by examining vegetarianism as it is represented in caricatures, it is able to reconstruct the verbal and visual arguments used both in favor of as well as against the movement. The exhibition reflects upon the ambivalent public perception of vegetarianism at the time and, additionally, provides an amusing window into the wit and humor of the period.

Click here to read about the exhibition. The German version of this virtual exhibition can be found here.

Evi Zemanek and Sophia Burgenmeister

About the author

Zemanek, Evi
Zemanek, Evi

University of Freiburg, Germany

Show more
Evi Zemanek is professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Freiburg (ALU), where she has taught German literature and intermedia studies since 2010. She holds a PhD in comparative literature from LMU Munich. Her main research interests lie within the fields of media ecology, intermedia and intercultural studies, ecocriticism, and multimedia environmental journalism. She has published broadly on the aesthetics of nature in various media, ecotopias, eco poetry, and, more generally, on the history of ecological thought and the poetics of “ecological genres.” Most recently, she has published on “sustainable media cultures” and edited (with U. Kluwick) an interdisciplinary book on sustainability (Nachhaltigkeit interdisziplinär. Konzepte, Diskurse, Praktiken, 2019). She is currently finishing a book on caricatures, which investigates the entanglements of media history and environmental history since the nineteenth century. Evi Zemanek is founder of the DFG-Network Ethik und Ästhetik in literarischen Darstellungen ökologischer Transformationen, a member of the DFG-Network Politiken der Idylle, as well as of the Upper Rhine Cluster for Sustainability Research, and of the Transatlantic Humboldt Network Environmental Humanities.

Burgenmeister, Sophia
Burgenmeister, Sophia

University of Freiburg, Germany

Show more
Sophia Burgenmeister is currently writing her dissertation at the University of Freiburg (ALU), exploring the discourse and media history of meat consumption and vegetarianism. Her further research interests lie within the fields of climate communication, contemporary lyric poetry and intermediality. Her book Der “Blick auf Beowulf” – Eine Spurensuche zwischen Medialität und Materialität bei Thomas Kling und Ute Langanky (2018) focuses on the interplay of photography and lyric poetry. She has studied Philosophy and German Literature, Culture, and Media at the Universites of Freiburg and Nottingham and has worked as an editor for Philosophy, Literature, and Media Studies.

Browse the exhibition

Exhibition Overview
Introduction
“You Are What You Eat”
Humans, Animals, and Nature
Meat Ban
Lifestyle and Zeitgeist
Further Reading

Agroecology as a Way of Life (Brazil)

Agroecology as a Way of Life (Brazil)

In this chapter from the virtual exhibition “Global Environments: A 360º Visual Journey,” Claire Lagier’s 360º video shows six-year-old agroforestry projects in a land reform settlement in the state of Paraná, Brazil. Her research focuses on agroecological rural social movements in this region.

Global Environments: A 360º Visual Journey

Communicating global environmental issues in new and exciting ways can lead to a better public understanding of academic research. The international doctoral researchers of the ENHANCE Innovative Training Network (ITN) present their interdisciplinary projects through short, immersive videos, accompanied by analytical contextualization. These six 360º videos and one multiple-screen video triptych, shot in different countries and ecosystems, aim to bring people closer to an in situ experience of global environments, their complexities, and our relationship to them.

ENHANCE ITN

About the author

Doctoral researchers, ENHANCE ITN
Doctoral researchers, ENHANCE ITN

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The international doctoral researchers of the ENHANCE Innovative Training Network (ITN) are funded by the European Commission’s Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions, and spread across four leading academic institutions: the Deutsches Museum, the Rachel Carson Center, KTH Stockholm, and the University of Leeds

Browse the exhibition

Exhibition Overview
About the Exhibition
Agroecology as a Way of Life (Brazil)
Salt Symbiosis on the Black Sea (Bulgaria)
Dreaming the Designer Climate (Iceland)
Building Cinque Terre: A Grapevine Viewpoint (Italy)
A Walk Through the Ruins (India)
Nourish: A 360° Video Poem (Baltic Sea)
Protecting Wild Spaces and Species (Sweden)
The Environment & Society Portal is a project of the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, an institute founded in 2009 as a joint initiative of LMU Munich and the Deutsches Museum. Read more about the Portal in English and in German.