29.2 | Perspectives on the Anthropocene

In August 2016, the International Geological Congress in Cape Town officially recommended declaring the Anthropocene epoch, which encourages concern, critical thinking, and interdisciplinary academic, political, and cultural collaboration. The Anthropocene, coined by biologist Eugene Stoermer and chemist Paul Crutzen in 2000, denotes the time period during which human influence on Earth’s geological processes and environment can be identified as significant – but it is no longer reserved only for (environmental) scientists.

This new issue of FRAME grapples with Anthropocene issues like overpopulation, nuclear landscapes, apocalyptism, and what counts as “life” in the Anthropocene. Drawing on perspectives from fields as diverse as continental philosophy, comparative literature, ecocriticism, animal studies, visual art, and feminism, this issue explores the recently articulated Anthropocene context and investigates what the Anthropocene and its many large-scale issues might mean for (literary) criticism, philosophical thought, and cultural production.

Main Articles

Lawrence Buell | Anthropocene Panic: Contemporary Ecocriticism and the Issue of Human Numbers
Abstract and PDF

Rosi Braidotti | Anthropos Redux: A Defence of Monism in the Anthropocene Epoch
Abstract and PDF

Anna Volkmar | Ironic Encounters in the Anthropocene: Jürgen Nefzger’s Nuclear Landscape Photography
Abstract and PDF

Ben de Bruyn | Learning to Be a Species in the Anthropocene: On Annie Proulx’s Barkskins
Abstract and PDF

An interview with Cary Wolfe | “A Blink of an Eye in the History of the Universe”
PDF

Masterclass

A review by Eline Tabak | Between Optimism and Pessimism: Ecocriticism in the Anthropocene
PDF

Published
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