Book contents
- The Cambridge History of the British Essay
- The Cambridge History of the British Essay
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Preface to a History in the Manner of an Essay
- Part I Forming the British Essay
- Part II The Great Age of the British Essay
- Part III Assaying Culture, Education, Reform
- Part IV Fractured Selves, Fragmented Worlds
- Part V The Essay and the Essayistic Today
- 39 The Eye and the I: Essay and Image
- 40 Of Human Suffering: The Essay and Ekphrasis
- 41 After Empire: Postcolonialism and the Essay
- 42 Performance and the Irish Essay
- 43 The Essay and the Public Intellectual
- 44 Essayism in Literary Theory
- 45 The Essay in the Career of the Contemporary British Novelist
- 46 Blogging in Britain: Essays in the Digital Age
- 47 The Essay, Ecocriticism, and the Anthropocene
- Book part
- Bibliography
- Index
47 - The Essay, Ecocriticism, and the Anthropocene
from Part V - The Essay and the Essayistic Today
Published online by Cambridge University Press: aN Invalid Date NaN
- The Cambridge History of the British Essay
- The Cambridge History of the British Essay
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Preface to a History in the Manner of an Essay
- Part I Forming the British Essay
- Part II The Great Age of the British Essay
- Part III Assaying Culture, Education, Reform
- Part IV Fractured Selves, Fragmented Worlds
- Part V The Essay and the Essayistic Today
- 39 The Eye and the I: Essay and Image
- 40 Of Human Suffering: The Essay and Ekphrasis
- 41 After Empire: Postcolonialism and the Essay
- 42 Performance and the Irish Essay
- 43 The Essay and the Public Intellectual
- 44 Essayism in Literary Theory
- 45 The Essay in the Career of the Contemporary British Novelist
- 46 Blogging in Britain: Essays in the Digital Age
- 47 The Essay, Ecocriticism, and the Anthropocene
- Book part
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter introduces the concept of the proposed new geological epoch, and the main paradoxes and dilemmas that follow. The Anthropocene requires us simultaneously to see human beings as occupying a position of unprecedented responsibility for the ecosphere, and as a tragically blundering species, caught by the unforeseen consequences of previous actions. Further uncertainties derive from the current interim state in which urgent warnings coexist with stubborn normality. Ecological threats such as global warming and the extinction crisis defy representation because, in the words of Timothy Clark, they present us with ‘derangements of scale’, displacing the timescape of conventional narrative and challenging our habitual sense of what is trivial and what is important. Through close readings of essayists Kathleen Jamie, Jessica Gaitán Johannesson, Richard Smyth, Rebecca Tamás, and Jean Sprackland, the chapter examines the implications of these ideas for the form, style, and content of the contemporary environmental essay.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of the British Essay , pp. 712 - 727Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024