1,721,027 research outputs found
“The Scale of the Anthropocene: Material Ecocritical Reflections”
No full textWOS:000444358900002TARAMASCOPUSTARAMAWOSThis essay considers the messy intra-actions of the Anthropocene agencies using the lenses of material
ecocriticism
“Envisioning a New Anthropocenario”
Get PDFBeing more than a geological concept, the Anthropocene mirrors the worldly entanglements of many species in overlapping trajectories of social, ecological, and geological forces. In this perspective the Anthropos figure is no longer envisioned as an epoch-making subject operating across multispecies habitats in messy ways, but as an earth-bound being ultimately inseparable from other species and the environment. This article argues for a new Anthroposcenario in which the stories of earthly agencies can be told in what Donna Haraway calls “multispecies storytelling” practices. But it also contends that multispecies storytelling can be made more effective through the perspective of material ecocriticism, which explores the narrative potential embedded in all forms of matter, positing that humans are not the only beings capable of telling stories. In the new Anthroposcenario, everything that is more than human can reveal the intertwined narratives of interdependence, relation making, and coexistence
What Matters Most Is the Wounded Planet
No full textTARAMAWOSWOS:000705411400001TARAMASCOPUSIndeed, “something miniscule” – an almost indelible entity – has toppled life on a global scale for almost two years now, impelling us to notice the precariousness of life “that hang(s) together in fragile coordinations” (Swanson et al. M2). Shaped by the destabilizing forces of a deadly virus infection, lock-down depression, and the resulting social traumas, we are now living in the Pandemic-Ridden Age of the Anthropocene
New Materialism and the Nonhuman Story
No full textOffers a comprehensive introduction to the environmental humanities. It addresses the 21st century recognition of an environmental crisis
Entangled Stories of Life: Narrative Agencies and “Ethics of Worlding” in the Quantum Realm
Get PDFThe foundational principle of quantum physics is the notion of entanglement, which can best be
described as the ontological inseparability of subatomic particles in such a way that the
measurement of one particle’s quantum state determines the possible quantum states of all other
particles. Supported by hard data in quantum physics, this nonlocal connectedness comprises the
internal relatedness of all existence at all levels of reality, which is also an expressive (or, narrative)
interconnectedness material ecocriticism labels as narrative agencies of storied matter. Matter’s
expressive capacity is best observable in the subatomic particles that have a certain degree of
creative expression when they communicate nonlocally. I argue that being part of this reality
means being part of the entangled stories of life, which compels us to act responsibly and develop
a new ethical attention toward our interconnections in the indivisible field of existence. Ethical
responsibility here is accountable “becoming with each other” (Haraway 2008), which Karen
Barad calls “ethics of worlding” (2007) necessary to sustain our storied existence (from the
subatomic particles all the way up)
“Storied Seas and Living Metaphors in the Blue Humanities”
No full textWOS:000489556000003TARAMASCOPUSTARAMAWOSABSTRACT: This article investigates the terraqueous entanglements of
human and marine life in material and discursive contexts through
an aquatic practice of material ecocritical theory. Material ecocriticism
encourages us to read the ecology of the planet’s protean seas by way
of their storied dimension, and to think the blue humanities and the
discoveries of marine sciences through one another, in creative ways.
In this context, two interlinked questions surface. 1. How do we theorize the seascapes whose materiality is hydrous without obfuscating
its reality in figurative conceptualizing? 2. If our knowledge of the
sea depends on how it is represented, and interpreted, will the sea’s
biogeophysical existence cease to exist? I argue that the meanings of
the sea always remain in the interstice between the discursive and the
real, and that the experience of the sea gains meaning only in their
corollary dynamics
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