Antropocenna Rawa: Akwafilologia rzeki przemysłowej
Anthropocenic Rawa: The Aquaphilology of an Industrial River

Summary/Abstract: This article presents an aquaphilological study of the affective discourse about anindustrial river. By examining historical and hydrological literature, art, literary texts,and media discourse, the authors show how the anthropopressure that affected theRawa river – which flows through Silesian cities, including Katowice – also markedlanguage, and how reclaiming the language for the river can restore her agency. Usingthe latest hydrological studies conducted in the project Zielony Horyzont (GreenHorizon; University of Silesia in Katowice, 2021–2023) – which seeks to mark hithertounstudied pollutants in the Rawa river – we attempt to similarly “expose” and “harvest”the pollutants present in how we talk and think about the river, which in the last centurybroke the alliance between people and the Rawa river. The interdisciplinary method ofan aquaphilological study that we thus develop turns out to be the only way to acceptthe Rawa river’s postnatural state, which continues to perform the tasks of a river whileexceeding them as it becomes a monument to the Anthropocene.

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