When dreaming, the economies are flowing underneath the skin

An eco-Marxist reading of Theis Ørntoft's Digte 2014 (Poems 2014)

Abstract

In the present article I examine how it feels to live in a time where the fossil capitalism undermines the foundation of life through Digte 2014 by Theis Ørntoft. The aim for the article is to emphasize a fundamental, yet frequently overlooked feature in one of the most significant works of fiction of the 10s: Namely that Digte 2014 depicts how it feels to live in the capitalocene age. Initially I introduce Andreas Malm, who states that the logics of the fossils fuels and the economy has led to the ecological crisis of today. I then analyse Digte 2014, where I focus on its descriptions of life in the Capitalocene age. Finally, based on two directions within ecocriticism, posthumanism and the humanism, I discuss the view of nature in the poems, in connection with its aesthetic and critical potential in the creation of a new meaning or hope for the future. The article concludes that Digte 2014 distinguishes between what is natural and cultural and identifies and designates a certain system and a certain group of people as the primary bearers of responsibility for the climate crisis. It thereby sets out a new meaning or hope for the future.