Necro-Ecology in Günderrode’s “The Idea of the Earth”

Abstract

In addition to foregrounding the intimate interconnectedness between the human and the non-human world necro-ecology also undermines the absolute separation between life and death. The purpose of this paper is to deploy these central tenets of necro-ecology to provide a reading of Karoline von Günderrode’s 1805 “The Idea of the Earth.” After discussing a shift that takes place in Schelling’s theory of the relationship between nature, life, and death (Section 1) I turn to the role of corporeal decomposition in relation to the earth as spelled out by Günderrode in “The Idea of the Earth” (Section 2). Though “The Idea of the Earth” operates within a naturphilosophical framework, it does so in a way distinct from Schelling’s theologically inflected middle work and in a way that is of relevance to the philosophical history and promise of necro-ecology.