UDTR Global Rights of Nature Radar

3: Nature

Identification

Public canonical key

doi:10.1017/9781805439158.005

Authors

David R. Midgley

Reported year

2026

Reported language

en

Source type

book-chapter

First detected

2026-11-09T19:18:10.477675+00:00

Last metadata observation

2026-11-09T19:18:10.477675+00:00

Last HTTP verification

Not checked

Documentary abstract — original language

Here we consider Döblin's presentation of natural phenomena in a wide range of contexts, starting with the various traditional ways of imagining nature alluded to in his early short stories and then noting the key aspects of the philosophical reflections on nature that he published in various essays of the 1920s and 1930s. The chapter draws attention to a variety of allusions to natural processes that play a part in Döblin's major fictions, notably Manas and Berlin Alexanderplatz , and concludes with a fuller discussion of the terms in which he depicts human interaction with the natural world in the historic past in Amazonas (1937–38; The Land without Death , 2022), and in an imagined future in Berge Meere und Giganten (1924; Mountains Oceans Giants , 2021). The Natural and the Supernatural Döblin's short stories, many of which are now available in an attractive English translation by Damion Searls, vividly illustrate how he went about exploring a wide range of idioms in which human beings have traditionally imagined the world they inhabit. It is in the idiom of gentle fairy tale, for example, that he tells of a clumsy young giant by the name of Wenzel lumbering into the city of Berlin and terrifying the townsfolk, who progressively hound him to his death—whereupon his mother covers his petrified remains beneath a greensward. The word “nature” does not appear in the text, but the allusion to the cliché of “Mother Nature” is unmistakable. When Döblin wrote his own version of the Bluebeard story, by contrast, the range of allusions he wove into his text was considerably more complex.

Identifiers

OPENALEX

W7165866847

DOI

10.1017/9781805439158.005

Documentary context

Documentary family

Book chapter

Source-reported types

book-chapter

Natural entities mentioned

Mountain · Ocean

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Book bibliographic description

Access status unknown

Sources

OpenAlex · Record 1 · Record 2

• DOI · https://doi.org/10.1017/9781805439158.005
• OpenAlex · https://openalex.org/W7165866847

Documentary status

Detected scholarly publication

Library

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