About the Author

Oliver Völker

E-Mail: Voelker@em.uni-frankfurt.de

Oliver studied Philosophy and Comparative Literature in Frankfurt am Main and Fribourg (Switzerland) and received his MA from Goethe University Frankfurt in 2011. Since 2012 he has been lecturer at the Department of Comparative Literature at Goethe University Frankfurt. He is currently writing his dissertation on the relationship between geological timescales and narrative form in German, English and American novels from Romanticism to contemporary literature. His research interests focus on the relationship between literature and the natural sciences, ecocriticism and animal studies.

Contributions by Author: Oliver Völker

“Che tempo, che tempo”

Geology and Environment in Max Frisch’s Der Mensch erscheint im Holozän

With the emergence of geology as a scientific discipline around 1800, the conception of the earth’s history went through a period of profound change.[1] In contrast to the biblical account of creation, dating Earth’s origin to 6000 years ago, the planet suddenly appeared as the outcome of inconceivably vast time periods that bore no evidence of any human presence or divine origin. Trying to determine the age of fossils, the French comparative anatomist Georges Cuvier saw a relationship between this conception of deep time and the […]