The configuration of malaise in Arson by Freudenthaler. The catastrophe and its function in Klima by Eva Horn

Abstract

This article examines the penultimate work by the Austrian author Laura Freudenthaler with the aim of exploring the portrayal of contemporary social malaise found therein. To this end, it analyses her formal approach in light of the emergence of a specific consciousness of the crisis and relates this to the representation of catastrophe within the text. In parallel, it comments on the aesthetic approach of Eva Horn’s theoretical contribution regarding contemporary Cli-fi works, the climate and the formation of a corresponding consciousness, and critiques the scope and limitations of the author’s position in relation to the theorised crisis. By way of conclusion, the configurations of malaise and consciousness developed in both texts are compared with the aim of identifying the ideological perspectives involved in each position. The main hypothesisis that the configuration of catastrophe in Freudenthaler’s work possesses, in its allegorical aspect, a critical potential for knowledge that surpasses Eva Horn’s theoretical proposal, which seeks, through the symbol and concept of the Anthropocene, to recover a supposed elemental state of natural harmony.