Research Proposal (Preliminary Submission)

The Literary Imagination of the Wadden Sea

Double Degree

Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg – University of Groningen
Prof. Dr. Ralf Grüttemeier – Prof. Dr. Mathijs Sanders

For centuries, the Wadden Sea has captured the imagination. This unique trilateral intertidal zone is characterized by remarkable bio-cultural diversity, continuous dynamism, and fluid boundaries between land and water, time and space, languages and narratives. Historically, the region has functioned as a screen onto which human fears and desires are projected: the Wadden constitute, par excellence, an affective landscape — an area that stimulates the imagination and is of great significance for the cultural identities of the regions in the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark. Increasingly, stories from and about the sea and the islands address the vulnerability of the area, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009. In a sense, the Wadden form a microcosm of the world: transformations such as sea-level rise, the impact of economic activities, pollution, and tourism become distinctly visible there.

The proposed doctoral project examines literature from an internationally comparative perspective. Its guiding research questions concern the representations of the Wadden region produced in literary works and the means by which these representations are constructed. What forms of knowledge about the Wadden do these literary works generate, and what affects do they produce? What developments can be identified since 1900? From a broad corpus (based on preliminary research), a sub-corpus of approximately twelve Dutch and German literary works will be selected for detailed analysis. The project focuses on two periods: the interwar years (particularly around the closure of the Zuiderzee) and the period from 1970 to the present, when the protection of the area became a prominent political and societal concern. The project pursues three objectives: (1) to generate new knowledge about literary representations of the Wadden region; (2) to stimulate public debate about the value and significance of the Wadden through narratives from and about the region; and (3) to produce educational tools that enhance public awareness of the Wadden’s unique and protectable character.

Methodologically, the project draws on insights from ecolinguistics, a recent approach that enables the systematic study of the linguistic and literary representation of relationships and interactions between humans, non-human life, and the natural environment. Inspired by Arran Stibbe’s Econarrative: Ethics, Ecology and the Search for New Narratives to Live By (2024), particular attention will be paid to the narrative framing of correlations between ecological and linguistic diversity. This methodology will be combined with an institutional perspective in order to address questions concerning the production, dissemination, and reception of Wadden literature from 1900 to the present.

Although the international network of knowledge institutions concerned with the Wadden region consists almost exclusively of natural science centers, there is growing recognition that knowledge of culture and literature is essential for interpreting the Wadden as an affective landscape. It is through stories that individuals develop a personal relationship with the region. Institutions face the challenge of communicating the importance of this area to broader audiences and emphasize the necessity of interpretative frameworks. Literature from and about the Wadden plays a crucial role in shaping the imagination and interpretation of this region. Literary representations contribute significantly to awareness of the Wadden as a region distinguished by exceptional forms of diversity — ecological, geological, morphological, cultural, and linguistic. This proposal therefore forms part of a systematic preparatory trajectory toward a Dutch Research Agenda (NWA) application to the Dutch Research Council (NWO). Discussions with NWO are currently ongoing.

Unlike many studies of the Wadden, this project adopts an explicitly international comparative approach. The Wadden are conceived as a single geographical region encompassing three countries and a multiplicity of fauna, flora, languages, and language varieties. Ideally, the doctoral candidate will therefore have an academic background in both literary studies and biology.

The proposed four-year doctoral project is embedded in the collaboration between the Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg and the University of Groningen, two universities bordering the Wadden region and possessing extensive expertise in this field. The applicants and the doctoral researcher will be able to draw on the network of knowledge and heritage institutions developed in recent years. The Dutch applicant is an active researcher in the Environmental Humanities Network of the University of Groningen and the Agricola School of Sustainable Development and is preparing several symposia and publications on the literary imagination of the Wadden. The German applicant is affiliated with the research focus “Regionalität” within Faculty III at the University of Oldenburg and has published, among other topics, on the avant-garde in northwestern Germany. The applicants’ methodological emphases are complementary (text-oriented at Groningen, institutional at Oldenburg). They have collaborated repeatedly in edited volumes and in doctoral supervision (e.g., Sanders served twice on doctoral committees in Oldenburg in 2025).