Moral Seascapes

We are no strangers today to visual representations of human suffering at sea: the refugee crisis that continues to play out in the seascape between Europe and Africa (and not only there) yields an ever-growing archive of humanitarian tragedy. As both a visual backdrop and a lethal medium of unequal mobility, maritime space and landscape play a significant role in mediating the ethical demands of this crisis. Yet, there has been little exploration of the longer history of morality’s role in our understanding of aesthetic representations of the sea. The diverse contributions in Moral Seascapes explore the various symbolic forms through which these shifting moral norms and values have been manifested, contributing to debates concerning the place of the sea in visual and literary cultures and the history of morality and emotion, as well as the emergence of modern subjectivity.

Drawing on a range of interdisciplinary perspectives such as visual culture, experimental art history, literary studies, history and philosophy, Moral Seascapes develops distinctive new insights into the relationship between the moral cultures of modernity and the image of the sea.

Jonathan Stafford is a research fellow at the Leibniz Centre for Literary and Cultural Research (ZfL Berlin). His research focuses on the history and visual culture of, and theoretical approaches to, the sea.

Henning Trüper is senior researcher at ZfL Berlin and associate professor of the history of ideas at Oslo University. His research concerns historical theory and the history of humanitarianism and moralities.

Burkhardt Wolf is professor of Modern German Literature, Media and Literary Theory at the University of Vienna. His recent research interests include the media history of administration and the poetics of affect.