Petromodern Europe 1920-1929. The Oil Curse in German Literature of the Golden Twenties

Objective

The proposed project investigates the neglected role of oil in German-language literature, film, and visual culture of the 1920s, a period marked by rapid geopolitical and cultural change. While the “resource curse” was only theorized in the 1990s, texts of the German Roaring Twenties already articulated critical reflections on fossil modernity, offering early depictions of what we may call the “Oil Curse.” Despite their relevance, these cultural responses have largely been ignored by scholarship. EUROIL fills this gap by providing the first systematic analysis of oil narratives in German Studies, situating them within broader European and transnational contexts. The project pursues three interrelated objectives: (1) Genealogies of the Oil Curse, (2) Critiques of Energy Modernity, and (3) Transnational and Intermedial Mobilities. Methodologically, EUROIL combines surface reading, praxeology, ecocriticism, and cultural transfer studies within the framework of the Energy Humanities. The corpus includes works by Döblin, Roth, Brecht, Mann, Essad Bey, Feuchtwanger, and Murnau, complemented by archival materials and contextual sources. Diversity dimensions will be addressed through analyses of petromasculinity, petrofeminism, and petroprecariat representations. Hosted at the University of Padua under the supervision of Prof. Daniele Vecchiato, EUROIL will benefit from an outstanding environment for interdisciplinary and international research. Through publications, open science practices, public engagement, and teaching activities, the project aims not only to reshape the study of German Modernism but also to demonstrate the relevance of literature and culture for contemporary debates on energy transition, aligning with the European Green Deal’s vision of a climate-neutral future.