Bryan Norton
Haverford
Host: Thiemo Breyer
Philosophisches Seminar und Husserl-Archiv
01.05.–15.07.2026
Research Project
Terrestrial Realism: Planet as Problem Space
This project aims to retrace and reimagine the development of literary realism in Europe in light of recent debate concerning 'new realisms' and 'new realities.' In fields ranging from art and politics to earth science and philosophy, figures like Bruno Latour have called for a 'return to Earth' following a perceived 'loss of contact' with material reality. The exploration of this topos of the planet has become particularly urgent due to accelerating climate change and planetary-scale technological disruption.
These conversations, this project suggests, provide an unexpected opportunity for thinking the legacy of literary realism and the role of the planet in realist fiction. Lying hidden within these pleas for new orientations toward the planet are echoes of previous examinations of modernity and historical time. By presenting the planet's terrestrial surface not as a problem to be solved, but as a tenuous process of what Celia Lury calls 'critical composition,' writings by Balzac, Gustav Freytag, Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, and others might now be seen as ongoing reminders of the importance of human sensing and historical experience in efforts to respond to the Anthropocene.
Vitae
Bryan Norton is a scholar of media and the environment in Germany and around the globe. He received his PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Pennsylvania in 2022 and spent three years as a Mellon Fellow in the Humanities at Stanford from 2022 to 2025. He is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of German at Haverford College. Norton's writings explore a range of topics from AI images and climate visualization to discussions of gender and sexual difference in natural philosophy. His work features regularly in venues such as Aeon and LA Review of Books and has been translated into several languages. Norton is the co-editor of a forthcoming collection of essays for Edinburgh University Press titled "Technics After Bernard Stiegler: Negentropic Futures." His first monograph, called Planetary Idealism, is under contract with Stanford University Press.
Keyareas of Research
- Romanticism
- Idealism
- Phenomenology
- Literary Realism
- Philosophy of Technology
- Environmental Humanities
- Visual Media
Selected Publications
Monographs
Planetary Idealism: German Romanticism and the Technics of Nature. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2027 (under contract).
Edited Collections and Journal Issues
Technics After Stiegler: Negentropic Futures. Edited Collection with Mark Hansen. “Technicities” Series. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2026 (under contract).
“Planetary Thinking in the Age of Goethe.” Special issue of Modern Language Notes 140:3 (2025): https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/55767.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
“Hoffmann’s Terrestrial Realism: Spectral Sensing and the Afterlife of History.” Special Issue of Modern Language Notes 140:3 (2025): doi.org/10.1353/mln.2025.a972231.
“Simondon and Novalis: Notes for a Romantic Mechanology.” SubStance 53:1 (2024): 85 – 100. doi-org.stanford.idm.oclc.org/10.1353/sub.2024.a924144. “The Extinction Image.” Cultural Politics 19:3 (2023): 333 – 352. read.dukeupress.edu/cultural-politics/article/19/3/333/384797/The-Extinction-I mage.
“Veloziferisch (Veloziferian).” Goethe Lexicon of Philosophical Concepts 1 (2021): 113-120, https://doi.org/10.5195/glpc.2021.25.
Essays in Collected Volumes
“Sensing Extinction: Arche-Cinema in the Anthropocene” Negentropic Futures: Bernard Stiegler and the Digital. Ed. Mark Hansen and Bryan Norton, 2026 (forthcoming).
(with Mark Hansen). “Introduction.” Negentropic Futures: Bernard Stiegler and the Digital. Ed. Mark Hansen and Bryan Norton, Edinburg: Edinburg University Press: 2026 (forthcoming).
“Black Hole Picture. Theory After the End of the Image.” Images, Reality, and Digital Culture: Towards a Post-pictorial Condition. Ed. Krešimir Purgar. London: Routledge, 2025.
Contact
Dr. Bryan Norton
Erich Auerbach Institute for Advanced Studies
E-Mail: bnorton(at)haverford(dot)edu