Koutsourakis, A (2017) Visualizing the Anthropocene dialectically: Jessica Woodworth and Peter Brosens’ eco-crisis trilogy. Film-Philosophy, 21 (3). pp. 299-325. ISSN 1466-4615
Abstract
The ambition of this article is to propose a way of visualizing the Anthropocene dialectically. As suggested by the Dutch atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen and the professor of biology Eugene F. Stoermer, the term Anthropocene refers to a historical period in which humankind has turned into a geological force that transforms the natural environment in such a way that it is hard to distinguish between the human and the natural world. Crutzen and Stoermer explain that the Anthropocene has begun after the Holocene, the geological epoch that followed the last ice age and lasted until the industrial revolution. Drawing on a number of figures such as the “tenfold” increase in urbanisation, the extreme transformation of land surface by human action, the use of more than 50% of all accessible fresh water by humans, and the massive increase in greenhouse emissions, Crutzen and Stoermer conclude that the term Anthropocene describes aptly mankind's influence on ecological and geological cycles (Crutzen & Stoermer, 2000, p.17). The wager of this article is that we need to identify ways to visualize the Anthropocene dialectically and I proceed to do so using as a case study Jessica Woodworth's and Peter Brosen's trilogy on the conflict between humans and nature, which consists of Khadak (2006), Altiplano (2009), and The Fifth Season (La Cinquième Saison, 2012).
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © Angelos Koutsourakis. This article is published as Open Access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial Licence (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction provided the original work is cited. For commercial re-use, please refer to our website at: www.euppublishing.com/customer-services/authors/permissions. |
Keywords: | Anthropocene, Peter Brosens, Jessica Woodworth, Dialectics, World Cinema. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Languages Cultures & Societies (Leeds) > German (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 26 Sep 2017 09:44 |
Last Modified: | 26 Sep 2017 09:56 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Edinburgh University Press |
Identification Number: | 10.3366/film.2017.0053 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:121677 |