Hermeneutics and the Eco-Weird
摘要
This chapter considers how environmental hermeneutics may align with and contribute to the eco-weird, particularly in considering the radical otherness of nature. First, the hermeneutic philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, particularly his thoughts on translation, will be used to show how we can never fully understand more-than-human others, so there is always a degree of otherness to them. Furthermore, environmental hermeneutics can align with the eco-weird in several ways: both consider the limits of our understanding of more-than-human others, the entangled relationship between the self and the other, and the potentiality for new environmental meanings. Translation and the eco-weird can further be seen in fiction with Algernon Blackwood’s “The Willows” and the Finnegan Lorcan film Without Name. The conclusion of this chapter is the need to accept the limits of our environmental understanding and respect the otherness of more-than-human others.