Nicholas Holm (editor) - Ecological Entanglements in the Anthropocene

Ecological Entanglements in the Anthropocene

Ecocritical Theory and Practice

Series Editor: Douglas A. Vakoch, California Institute of Integral Studies, USA

Advisory Board

Joni Adamson, Arizona State University, USA; Mageb Al-adwani, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia; Bruce Allen, Seisen University, Japan; Hannes Bergthaller, National Chung-Hsing University, Taiwan; Zlia Bora, Federal University of Paraba, Brazil; Izabel Brando, Federal University of Alagoas, Brazil; Byron Caminero-Santangelo, University of Kansas, USA; Jeffrey J. Cohen, George Washington University, USA; Simo Farias Almeida, Federal University of Roraima, Brazil; Julia Fiedorczuk, University of Warsaw, Poland; Camilo Gomides, University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico; Yves-Charles Grandjeat, Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux 3 University, France; George Handley, Brigham Young University, USA; Isabel Hoving, Leiden University, The Netherlands; Idom Thomas Inyabri, University of Calabar, Nigeria; Serenella Iovino, University of Turin, Italy; Adrian Ivakhiv, University of Vermont, USA; Daniela Kato, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, China; Petr Kopeck, University of Ostrava, Czech Republic; Mohammad Nasser Modoodi, Payame Noor University, Iran; Patrick Murphy, University of Central Florida, USA; Serpil Oppermann, Hacettepe University, Turkey; Rebecca Raglon, University of British Columbia, Canada; Anuradha Ramanujan, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Christian Schmitt-Kilb, University of Rostock, Germany; Marian Scholtmeijer, University of Northern British Columbia, Canada; Heike Schwarz, University of Augsburg, Germany; Murali Sivaramakrishnan, Pondicherry University, India; Scott Slovic, University of Idaho, USA; J. Etienne Terblanche, North-West University, South Africa; Julia Tofantuk, Tallinn University, Estonia; Jennifer Wawrzinek, Free University of Berlin, Germany; Cheng Xiangzhan, Shandong University, China; Yuki Masami, Kanazawa University, Japan; Hubert Zapf, University of Augsburg, Germany

Ecocritical Theory and Practice highlights innovative scholarship at the interface of literary/cultural studies and the environment, seeking to foster an ongoing dialogue between academics and environmental activists.

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Ecological Entanglements in the Anthropocene

Nicholas Holm and Sy Taffel

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Contents

Sy Taffel and Nicholas Holm

Sean Cubitt

Nicholas Holm

Charles Dawson

Jacob Otter

Victoria Grieves

Anne OBrien

Sharon Stevens

Sita Venkateswar

Christopher Orchard and James Holcombe

Octavia Cade

Gareth Stanton

David Orchard and Peter Orchard

Sy Taffel

This anthology began its life as a conference, Working with Nature: Ecological Entanglements in the Anthropocene, which was held in April 2015 at the Manawatu campus of Massey University in Aotearoa New Zealand. Initially envisioned as a small-scale symposium event, we were taken aback by the high levels of interest among those eager to discuss and debate the implications of the Anthropocenic moment, and our small event gradually shifted to a larger two-day format that provided a forum for a range of voices and perspectives addressing the different ways in what we once thought of as natural and human worlds might relate to one another. This book would never have existed without both the support of various institutions and the enthusiasm of the local academic community which made that event possible.

We would therefore like to thank Massey Universitys School of English and Media Studies, College of Humanities and Social Sciences and, especially, the W.H. Oliver Humanities Research Academy (and its director, Kerry Taylor) for their generous support of the initial event. After the fact, the Massey University Political Ecology Research Centre also provided support that helped make this book possible.

We would also like to thank all those who presented at the conference Ozan Alakavuklar, Cameron Boyle, Sean Cubitt, Charles Dawson, Caroline Depatie, Ali East, Victoria Grieves, Dinah Hawken, Susie Lachal, Jenny Mauger, Sasha Matthewman, Anne OBrien, Jacob Otter, Christopher Orchard, David Orchard, Peter Orchard, Kathryn Ovenden, Tamati Patuwai, Jane Richardson, Isa Ritchie, Janet Sayers, Heike Schiele, Gareth Stanton, Polly Stupples, Sita Venkateswar, Chris Teo-Sherrell and Helen Lehndorf who all contributed to the discussions and debates that shape the arguments and perspectives presented in this collection. In addition, the assistance of Carolyn Morris, Ingrid Horrocks and Tim Jurgens in the organization of the conference helped make the event possible.

Finally, we would also like to thank those who helped make this collection possible: Thom Conroy stepped in to help us locate the right person to fill a gap that opened up at the last second; Lexington Books Ecocritical Theory and Practice series editor, Douglas Vakoch, who first approached us with the idea that the conference might serve as a good basis for an anthology; and our editor Lindsey Porambo, who provided invaluable advice and support as we prepared this collection.

Sy Taffel and Nicholas Holm

Barads work, but are broadly influenced by the conception of entanglement as a mode of collectively becoming-together which goes beyond discourses of connectivity and interaction.

Entanglement and the Anthropocene

Entanglement therefore parallels certain aspects of ecology, the study of flows of energy and matter through multiscalar systems encompassing individuals, populations (groups of the same species), communities (agglomerations of multiple species) and ecosystems (which explores non-living nonhumans in addition to communities of life). Rather than the Cartesian demarcation between nature and culture, these otherwise disparate perspectives share the rejection of a dualistic ontology which separates humans from nature and brackets the latter term as an environment for social action.

Such a manner of conceptualizing the relation between those categories formerly known as nature and culture becomes particularly pertinent in the current moment of the Anthropocene. A literal translation of the Anthropocene combines the suffix -cene, which denotes an epoch situated within the Cenozoic era, alongside the prefix Anthropos which derives from the Greek word , which has been traditionally translated by biblical scholars as Son of Man. As we shall see, while humanity often refers to a somewhat nebulous and highly problematic universalization which homogenizes a range of local, embedded and specific human actions, the ecological and geological contexts gestured towards by the Anthropocene are closely tied to the universalist ideology of the enlightenment subject whose historical invention Foucault identifies, and the economic model of industrial capitalism which accompanied it.