Anthropocene, literature, and econarratology: An interview with Marco Caracciolo
-
Hongri Wang
and
Marco Caracciolo
Abstract
Marco Caracciolo is Associate Professor of English and Literary Theory at Ghent University in Belgium, where he led the ERC Starting Grant project “Narrating the Mesh.” (2017–2022). His work explores the phenomenology of narrative, or the structure of the experiences afforded by literary fiction and other narrative media. He is the author of several books including the most recently Slow Narrative and Nonhuman Materialities (2022) and Contemporary Fiction and Climate Uncertainty: Narrating Unstable Futures (2022). In September 2021, Dr. Wang Hongri interviewed Caracciolo on Anthropocene literature and econarratology via e-mail. In this interview, Caracciolo sheds light on the use of such concepts as the Anthropocene, climate crisis and climate change fiction in literary studies. Further, he elaborates on the tardiness of narratological interests in environmental issues and narrative’s formal affordance to address the Anthropocene condition. After commenting on the relationship between New Formalism and the contextualist vein of contemporary narrative theory, Caracciolo identifies four future directions for the study of Anthropocene literature and econarratology.
References
Berlant, Lauren. 2008. The female complaint: The unfinished business of sentimentality in American culture. Durham: Duke University Press.10.1515/9780822389163Search in Google Scholar
Bracke, Astrid. 2020. Worldmaking environmental crisis: Climate fiction, econarratology, and genre. In Erin James and Eric Morel (eds.), Environment and narrative: New directions in econarratology, 165–182. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press. Search in Google Scholar
Caracciolo, Marco. 2021. Narrating the mesh: Form and story in the anthropocene. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.10.2307/j.ctv1fqvm5pSearch in Google Scholar
Claire Colebrook. 2014. Death of the postHuman: Essays on extinction, Vol. 1. Ann Arbor: Open Humanities Press.10.3998/ohp.12329362.0001.001Search in Google Scholar
Fludernik, Monika. 2010. Towards a “natural” narratology. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Ghosh, Amitav. 2017. The great derangement: Climate change and the unthinkable. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226323176.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Goodbody, Axel, and Adeline Johns-Putra. 2019. The rise of the climate change novel. In Adeline Johns-Putra (ed.), Climate and literature, 229–245. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/9781108505321.015Search in Google Scholar
Hale, Dorothy J. 2020. The novel and the new ethics. Redwood City: Stanford University Press.10.1515/9781503614079Search in Google Scholar
Heise, Ursula K. 2020. Econarratology for the future. In Erin James and Eric Morel (eds.), Environment and narrative: New directions in econarratology, 203–212. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Herman, David. 1997. Scripts, sequences, and stories: Elements of a postclassical narratology. PMLA 112(5). 1046–1059.10.2307/463482Search in Google Scholar
Houser, Heather. 2014. Ecosickness in contemporary U. S. fiction: Environment and affect. New York: Columbia University Press.10.7312/columbia/9780231165143.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
James, Erin. 2015. The storyworld accord: Econarratology and postcolonial narratives. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.10.2307/j.ctt1d9898mSearch in Google Scholar
James, Erin, and Eric Morel, eds. 2020. Environment and narrative: New directions in econarratology. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press.10.26818/9780814214206Search in Google Scholar
LeMenager, Stephanie. 2017. Climate change and the struggle for genre. In Tobias Menely and Jesse O. Taylor (eds.), Anthropocene reading: Literary history in geologic times, 220–238. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press.10.1515/9780271080390-013Search in Google Scholar
Levine, Caroline. 2015. Forms: Whole, rhythm, hierarchy, network. Princeton: Princeton University Press.10.23943/princeton/9780691160627.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Mehnert, Antonia. 2016. Climate change fictions: Representations of global warming in American literature. Palgrave: Macmillan.10.1007/978-3-319-40337-3Search in Google Scholar
Schneider-Mayerson, Matthew, Alexa Weik von Mossner, and W. P. Małecki. 2020. Empirical ecocriticism: Environmental texts and empirical methods. ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 27(2). 327–336.10.1093/isle/isaa022Search in Google Scholar
Smith, Bruce D., and Melinda A. Zeder. 2013. The onset of the anthropocene. Anthropocene 4. 8–13.10.1016/j.ancene.2013.05.001Search in Google Scholar
Sommer, Roy. 2007. “Contextualism” revisited. A survey (and defence) of postcolonial and intercultural narratologies. Journal of Literary Theory 1(1). 61–79.10.1515/JLT.2007.005Search in Google Scholar
Vermeulen, Pieter. 2020. Literature and the anthropocene. London: Routledge.10.4324/9781351005425Search in Google Scholar
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Anthropocene, literature, and econarratology: An interview with Marco Caracciolo
- The road chronotope in rural colonial Philippines
- Approaching the world of non-human experience: Unnatural ways of worldmaking in Ian McEwan’s fiction
- ‘The whole fragment’: Fragments and ethics in the poetry of Ann Lauterbach
- Conceptions of literary authorship in modern literary theories: history, issues, approaches
- Balance history and fiction in narrative: Approaching Walter Scott’s classical historical novels
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Anthropocene, literature, and econarratology: An interview with Marco Caracciolo
- The road chronotope in rural colonial Philippines
- Approaching the world of non-human experience: Unnatural ways of worldmaking in Ian McEwan’s fiction
- ‘The whole fragment’: Fragments and ethics in the poetry of Ann Lauterbach
- Conceptions of literary authorship in modern literary theories: history, issues, approaches
- Balance history and fiction in narrative: Approaching Walter Scott’s classical historical novels
