Description: Considers the implications of the Anthropocene, the proposed geological epoch in which a human "signature" appears in the lithostratigraphic record, for literary history and critical method. Explores the status of reading in the history of geology, and of geohistory in literature.
Brief description: Tobias Menely is Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Davis, and the author of The Animal Claim: Sensibility and the Creaturely Voice.
Review Quotes:
"Elaborating on Dipesh Chakrabarty's linking of human and earth history in the Anthropocene, the editors frame this scintillating volume by asserting that we humans now read our 'transformative presence in the Earth's strata, ' that is, paradoxically both changing and interpreting the Earth's structures. Skills for textual analysis are thus crucial. With ecocritical voices debating the possibilities--and horrors--of the Anthropocene, Anthropocene Reading is a major contribution to ecocriticism and a delight to read."
--Heather I. Sullivan, Trinity University