Project description
Revisiting oil and fossil modernity in 1920s German culture
As the backbone of the global economy, oil has been fuelling industries, transportation and energy production for decades. However, its role in the formation of European cultural discourses and the emergence of critical approaches towards fossil-fuel dependency has not been explored. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the EUROIL project will study how German popular culture of the 1920s responded to the social, political and ecological issues brought about by oil and fossil-fuel modernity. It will study literary and cinematic works to shed light on the representations of energy, mobility, gender and modernity in interwar Europe. Its overall goal is to demonstrate how humanities can help address the modern climate crisis.
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.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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35122 Padova
Italy
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