Water Enclosure and World-Literature: New Perspectives on Hydro-Power and World-Ecology

Abstract

This editorial introduces the special issue, ‘World Literature and the Blue Humanities’. The authors articulate the commonalities and tensions between world literature, world-ecology, blue humanities, and hydrocultural approaches. Taking megadams, water pollution, and the blue revolution as baselines, we offer short analyses of works by Namwali Serpell, Craig Santos Perez, Jean Arasanayagam, Paul Greengrass, Will Menmuir, and Emily St. John Mandel in order to articulate how culture can both contest and normalize water enclosure. The piece ends with a brief summary of the contributions to the special issue.

The End of Cheap Water Hydro-Capitalism in Mindy McGinnis Not a Drop to Drink (2013)

“…Ecocriticism as well as the environmental humanities have resulted the exposure of the 'blue humanities' coined by Steve Mentz, an English professor. The 'hydrological turn' that has appeared as a result of the elevation and growth of the blue humanities has given rise to new trends of hydro-criticism that are devoted to examine "how narrative form registers the spatial strategies and geopolitics of water enclosure", which in turn help "to sustain dominant hydrological regimes" as well as to expect "alternative epistemes and imaginaries of water' (Campbell 2020). Anna Henkel, an environmental researcher, marks the contemporary stage of advancement as "thrilling and threatening" (2016, 1).…”

Toward a Sociology of Water: Reconstructing the Missing “Big Picture” of Social Water Research

“…It should be noted, however, that there are also discussions on water-related topics in the humanities, especially in philosophy [21][22][23] and literature studies. Within the latter discipline, the field of the 'blue humanities' has emerged, which mainly addresses topics related to oceans and seafaring [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. Importantly, in the natural sciences, (socio-)hydrology is not the only discipline engaged with the relationship between water and human societies.…”