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Anthropocene Unseen: A Lexicon

  • Cymene Howe (editor)
  • Anand Pandian (editor)
Metadata
TitleAnthropocene Unseen
SubtitleA Lexicon
ContributorCymene Howe (editor)
Anand Pandian (editor)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.21983/P3.0265.1.00
Landing pagehttps://punctumbooks.com/titles/anthropocene-unseen-a-lexicon/
Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
CopyrightHowe, Cymene; Pandian, Anand
Publisherpunctum books
Publication placeEarth, Milky Way
Published on2020-02-07
ISBN978-1-950192-55-7 (Paperback)
978-1-950192-56-4 (PDF)
Long abstractThe idea of the Anthropocene often generates an overwhelming sense of abjection or apathy. It occupies the imagination as a set of circumstances that counterpose individual human actors against ungraspable scales and impossible odds. There is much at stake in how we understand the implications of this planetary imagination, and how to plot paths from this present to other less troubling futures. With Anthropocene Unseen: A Lexicon, the editors aim at a resource helpful for this task: a catalog of ways to pluralize and radicalize our picture of the Anthropocene, to make it speak more effectively to a wider range of contemporary human societies and circumstances. Organized as a lexicon for troubled times, each entry in this book recognizes the gravity of the global forecasts that invest the present with its widespread air of crisis, urgency, and apocalyptic possibility. Each also finds value in smaller scales of analysis, capturing the magnitude of an epoch in the unique resonances afforded by a single word. The Holocene may have been the age in which we learned our letters, but we are faced now with circumstances that demand more experimental plasticity. Alternative ways of perceiving a moment can bring a halt to habitual action, opening a space for slantwise movements through the shock of the unexpected. Each small essay in this lexicon is meant to do just this, drawing from anthropology, literary studies, artistic practice, and other humanistic endeavors to open up the range of possible action by contributing some other concrete way of seeing the present. Each entry proposes a different way of conceiving this Earth from some grounded place, always in a manner that aims to provoke a different imagination of the Anthropocene as a whole. The Anthropocene is a world-engulfing concept, drawing every thing and being imaginable into its purview, both in terms of geographic scale and temporal duration. Pronouncing an epoch in our own name may seem the ultimate act of apex species self-aggrandizement, a picture of the world as dominated by ourselves. Can we learn new ways of being in the face of this challenge, approaching the transmogrification of the ecosphere in a spirit of experimentation rather than catastrophic risk and existential dismay? This lexicon is meant as a site to imagine and explore what human beings can do differently with this time, and with its sense of peril.
Print length545 pages
LanguageEnglish (Original)
Dimensions127 x 203 mm | 5" x 8" (Paperback)
LCCN2019951805
THEMA
  • JHMC
  • RNPG
BIC
  • JHMC
  • RNPG
BISAC
  • SOC002000
Keywords
  • anthropocene
  • cultural studies
  • climate change
  • ecopolitics
  • environmental humanities
  • nature
  • extinction
Funding
Contents

Frontmatter

(pp. 1–16)
  • Anand Pandian

Introduction

(pp. 17–23)
  • Anand Pandian
  • Cymene Howe

Acceleration

(pp. 24–29)
  • David Rojas

Address

(pp. 30–33)
  • Oliver Kellhammer
  • Fritz Ertl
  • Marina Zurkow
  • Una Chaudhuri

Anticipation

(pp. 34–38)
  • Joseph Masco

Apocalypse

(pp. 40–44)
  • Roy Scranton

Appreciation

(pp. 46–51)
  • Matthew Archer

Bloom

(pp. 52–57)
  • Chitra Venkataramani

Business

(pp. 58–62)
  • Gökçe Günel

Carbon

(pp. 64–68)
  • Jerome Whitington

Care

(pp. 70–74)
  • Charis Boke

Cloud

(pp. 76–80)
  • Vasundhara Bhojvaid

Conditions

(pp. 82–86)
  • Franz Krause

Cosmos

(pp. 88–93)
  • Abou Farman

Death

(pp. 94–97)
  • Maria Whiteman

Dispossession

(pp. 98–102)
  • Paige West

Distribution

(pp. 104–109)
  • Timothy Choy

Dog

(pp. 110–114)
  • Ann Marie Thornburg

Dream

(pp. 116–118)
  • Timothy Morton

Dredge

(pp. 120–125)
  • Ashley Carse

Drone

(pp. 126–130)
  • Marcel LaFlamme

Earths

(pp. 132–136)
  • Joshua Reno

Ecopolitics

(pp. 138–142)
  • Eduardo Kohn

Ends

(pp. 144–148)
  • Imre Szeman

Environing

(pp. 150–154)
  • Jeffrey Jerome Cohen

Eschaton

(pp. 156–161)
  • Jonathan Padwe

Expenditure

(pp. 162–166)
  • Naveeda Khan

Exposure

(pp. 168–174)
  • Elizabeth F.S. Roberts

Extinction

(pp. 176–182)
  • Noah Theriault
  • Audra Mitchell

Fiction

(pp. 184–189)
  • Anindita Banerjee

Fire

(pp. 190–195)
  • Daniel Fisher

Flatulence

(pp. 196–200)
  • Radhika Govindrajan

Flock

(pp. 202–206)
  • Anne Galloway

Generation

(pp. 208–213)
  • Vincent Ialenti

Gluten

(pp. 214–219)
  • Jessica Barnes

Gratitude

(pp. 220–224)
  • Iza Kavedžija

Heat

(pp. 226–230)
  • Alex Nading

Hyposubjects

(pp. 232–235)
  • Dominic Boyer
  • Timothy Morton

Industrialism

(pp. 236–241)
  • Craig Campbell

Installation

(pp. 242–247)
  • Serpil Oppermann

Interstellar

(pp. 248–253)
  • Michael P. Oman-Reagan

Leviathans

(pp. 254–259)
  • Alex Golub

Melt

(pp. 260–263)
  • Stefan Helmreich

Miracles

(pp. 264–268)
  • Diego Cagüeñas Rozo

Models

(pp. 270–274)
  • Jeremy Trombley

Monoculture

(pp. 276–280)
  • Sarah Besky

Mood

(pp. 282–286)
  • Atreyee Majumder

Narcissus

(pp. 288–292)
  • Naisargi N. Dave

Nature

(pp. 294–299)
  • Stuart McLean

Nemesis

(pp. 300–305)
  • Laura Watts

Ocean

(pp. 306–310)
  • Steve Mentz

Petroleum

(pp. 312–315)
  • Elizabeth Povinelli

Photosynthesis

(pp. 316–322)
  • Natasha Myers

Plastic

(pp. 324–329)
  • Anand Pandian

Plenitude

(pp. 330–335)
  • Lora Koycheva

Power

(pp. 336–340)
  • John Hartigan

Predation

(pp. 342–347)
  • Nayanika Mathur

Preparedness

(pp. 348–352)
  • Frédéric Keck

Price

(pp. 354–358)
  • Maira Hayat

Probiotic

(pp. 360–366)
  • Jamie Lorimer

Quotidian

(pp. 368–373)
  • Eli Elinoff
  • Tyson Vaughan

Recalcitrance

(pp. 374–379)
  • Rijul Kochhar

Relationships

(pp. 380–384)
  • Zoe Todd

Riddle

(pp. 386–390)
  • Michael Gossett

Rivers

(pp. 392–396)
  • Rochelle Tobias

Ruin

(pp. 398–402)
  • Sophia Roosth

Seeds

(pp. 404–409)
  • Tracey Heatherington

Shit

(pp. 410–414)
  • Nicholas C. Kawa

Slavery

(pp. 416–420)
  • Claire Colebrook

Smugglers

(pp. 422–426)
  • Jason De León

Species

(pp. 428–432)
  • Eben Kirksey

Stability

(pp. 434–439)
  • Elizabeth Reddy

Steps

(pp. 440–444)
  • smudge studio

Suburbs

(pp. 446–450)
  • Andrew Pendakis

Surprise!

(pp. 452–457)
  • Zoe Nyssa

Surreal

(pp. 458–462)
  • Nicholas Shapiro

Sustainability

(pp. 464–468)
  • María García Maldonado
  • Rosario García Meza
  • Emily Yates-Doerr

Terrain

(pp. 470–474)
  • Gastón Gordillo

Thermodynamics

(pp. 476–480)
  • Cara Daggett

Thresholds

(pp. 483–486)
  • P. Joshua Griffin

Timely

(pp. 488–492)
  • Cymene Howe

Trump

(pp. 494–498)
  • Tom Cohen

Turtle

(pp. 500–502)
  • Nomi Stone

Unknowns

(pp. 504–508)
  • Debbora Battaglia

Unseens

(pp. 510–514)
  • Celia Lowe

Vulnerability

(pp. 516–520)
  • Sarah E. Vaughn

Wildness

(pp. 522–526)
  • Dana J. Graef

Zoonosis

(pp. 528–532)
  • Genese Marie Sodikoff

Figures

(pp. 535–540)
  • Cymene Howe
  • Anand Pandian
Contributors

Cymene Howe

(editor)

Anand Pandian

(editor)
References