Wenn die Natur das Geschehen bestimmt. Auf den Spuren einer grenzenlosen Gemeinschaft am Beispiel der Erzählung "Die Rückeroberung" von Franz Hohler

Abstract

In the context of global changes, the article explores the creation of a community of humans with nonhuman actors in Franz Hohler’s short story "Die Rückeroberung" (1982), while questioning the anthropocentric perspective. Hohler presents a portrayal of Zurich dominated by animals and plants, which leads to reflections on communal urban life and encourages us to consider social relationships and species boundaries. Using ecocriticism and Bruno Latour’s actor-network theory, the paper analyzes the human subjectivity, the agency in networks, and the relationships between community members. The influence of non-human actors on reality is emphasised and the connections between different actors are highlighted to illustrate that humans are not the sole agents of action.

Keywords

• Franz Hohler
• community
• posthumanism
• ecocriticism
• german-swiss literature