To the Last Drop: Affective Economies of Extraction and Sentimentality

The romance of extraction underlies and partly defines Western modernity and our cultural imaginaries. Combining affect studies and environmental humanities, this volume analyzes societies' devotion to extraction and fossil resources. This devotion is shaped by a nostalgic view on settler colonialism as well as by contemporary »affective economies« (Sara Ahmed). The contributors examine the links between forms of extractivism and gendered discourses of sentimentality and the ways in which cultural narratives and practices deploy the sentimental mode (in plots of attachment, sacrifice, and suffering) to promote or challenge extractivism.

Axelle Germanaz is a doctoral researcher in American Studies at Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.

Daniela Gutiérrez Fuentes is a doctoral researcher in American Studies at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany.

Sarah Marak is a doctoral research in American studies at Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.

Heike Paul (Prof. Dr. phil.) ist Lehrstuhlinhaberin für Amerikanistik an der Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. Forschungsaufenthalte und Gastprofessuren führten sie nach Cambridge (MA), Toronto und Hanover (NH). Sie ist u.a. Sprecherin des DFG-Graduiertenkollegs »Das Sentimentale in Literatur, Kultur und Politik« und erhielt 2018 den Leibniz-Preis.