Re-imagining Anthropocene: towards a post-anthropocentric planetary literature Scientific and cultural debates around the concept of Anthropocene – proposed by Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer to name our current geological epoch – have opened the literary world to new narratives, ideas, and theoretical horizons. Despite its ambiguity, the term reveals how human action has negatively influenced the Earth system’s equilibria, causing catastrophic events such as climate change, biodiversity loss, floods, and droughts. In this context, philosophical and literary discussions have pointed out the necessity of a paradigmatic shift from the anthropocentrism of western cultures – based on the division between nature and culture, human and non-human worlds – towards more ecological, eco-cosmopolitan, and posthuman systems of belief. Literary fiction contributes to the western culture’s paradigmatic change in different ways: I turn to new materialism, environmental humanities, and posthuman ecocriticism to propose a comparative analysis of narrative works of the Italian writer Laura Pugno and the French writer Marie Darrieussecq to support such theoretical discussions, underlying their value in our contemporary planetary and post-anthropocentric literary scenario. Keywords: Anthropocene; Ecocriticism; Environmental Humanities. References Benedetti, Carla: La letteratura ci salverà dall’estinzione. Turin 2021. Braidotti, Rosi: The Posthuman. Cambridge-Malden 2013. Haraway, Donna J.: Staying with the Trouble: Making kin in the Chthulucene, Durham 2016. Heise, Ursula K: Sense of Place and Sense of Planet: The Environmental Imagination of the Global. New York 2008. Iovino, Serenella; Oppermann Serpil: Environmental Humanities: Voices from the Anthropocene. London 2016. Latour, Bruno : Face à Gaia. Huit conférences sur le nouveau régime climatique. Paris 2015. Annamaria Elia is a PhD candidate in Italian Studies at the Sapienza University of Rome. She was previously enrolled in a Double Master’s Degree at Sapienza University and Sorbonne University (Paris), where she graduated with honours in Comparative Literature. Her research interests concern ecocriticism, posthuman studies and environmental humanities.
Re-imagining Anthropocene: towards a post-anthropocentric planetary literature / Elia, Annamaria. - (2022). (Intervento presentato al convegno XXIII International Congress of the AILC-ICLA, “Re-Imagining Literatures of the World: Global and Local, Mainstreams and Margins” tenutosi a Tbilisi, Georgia).
Re-imagining Anthropocene: towards a post-anthropocentric planetary literature
Annamaria Elia
2022
Abstract
Re-imagining Anthropocene: towards a post-anthropocentric planetary literature Scientific and cultural debates around the concept of Anthropocene – proposed by Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer to name our current geological epoch – have opened the literary world to new narratives, ideas, and theoretical horizons. Despite its ambiguity, the term reveals how human action has negatively influenced the Earth system’s equilibria, causing catastrophic events such as climate change, biodiversity loss, floods, and droughts. In this context, philosophical and literary discussions have pointed out the necessity of a paradigmatic shift from the anthropocentrism of western cultures – based on the division between nature and culture, human and non-human worlds – towards more ecological, eco-cosmopolitan, and posthuman systems of belief. Literary fiction contributes to the western culture’s paradigmatic change in different ways: I turn to new materialism, environmental humanities, and posthuman ecocriticism to propose a comparative analysis of narrative works of the Italian writer Laura Pugno and the French writer Marie Darrieussecq to support such theoretical discussions, underlying their value in our contemporary planetary and post-anthropocentric literary scenario. Keywords: Anthropocene; Ecocriticism; Environmental Humanities. References Benedetti, Carla: La letteratura ci salverà dall’estinzione. Turin 2021. Braidotti, Rosi: The Posthuman. Cambridge-Malden 2013. Haraway, Donna J.: Staying with the Trouble: Making kin in the Chthulucene, Durham 2016. Heise, Ursula K: Sense of Place and Sense of Planet: The Environmental Imagination of the Global. New York 2008. Iovino, Serenella; Oppermann Serpil: Environmental Humanities: Voices from the Anthropocene. London 2016. Latour, Bruno : Face à Gaia. Huit conférences sur le nouveau régime climatique. Paris 2015. Annamaria Elia is a PhD candidate in Italian Studies at the Sapienza University of Rome. She was previously enrolled in a Double Master’s Degree at Sapienza University and Sorbonne University (Paris), where she graduated with honours in Comparative Literature. Her research interests concern ecocriticism, posthuman studies and environmental humanities.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
