Literature Stream Seminars: "Nature and the Human Gaze? Ecocritical Perspectives on Ancient Didactic Poetry"

Nature and the Human Gaze? Ecocritical Perspectives on Ancient Didactic Poetry
Lukas Spielhofer (Heidelberg University)

In this talk, I will give an insight into my current research project, which employs an ecocritical lens to examine ancient didactic poetry. It explores how different Greek and Latin texts engage with the non-human world and what they contribute to our understanding of the relationship between humans and nature in antiquity as mediated through literature. In particular, the focus of my presentation will be on the form and function of anthropo-, zoo-, and phytomorphism, as well as the role of vivid storytelling in the description of plants, animals, and landscapes. By examining passages from Hesiod’s Works and Days, Lucretius’ De rerum natura, and Vergil’s Georgics, I aim to shed light on different strategies of representing nature in didactic poetry. As the discussed examples will demonstrate, these works offer us a variety of perspectives on the non-human – from stark contrasts of ‘man’ versus an othered ‘nature’, to more fluid conceptions of the world in which images flow into each other, and even outright monstrous displays.