Investigator: Molina Klingler, M.A.
This project explores the notions of knowledge and failure in the context of the contemporary “eco-manifesto.” It analyzes the emergence and the poetics of manifesto writing. Often read as minority writing, manifestos serve as vehicles for “subjugated knowledges” (Foucault). Can the “surge” of eco-manifesto writing in contemporary times be understood as a symptom of the failure of knowledge, or rather as a failure of knowledge transmission in times of environmental crises? Does the eco-manifesto also act as a site of knowledge production? Positioning itself as a political statement about the past and the present, the speculative eco-manifesto becomes a performative call for action to shape the future. Situated in the discourse of critical posthumanism and the larger context of the environmental humanities, the project also addresses topics such as human exceptionalism.