Marland, P orcid.org/0000-0001-5458-8821 (2021) Deep Time Visible. In: Parham, J, (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Anthropocene. Cambridge Companions to Literature . Cambridge University Press , Cambridge , pp. 289-303. ISBN 9781108498531
Abstract
This chapter explores a selection of new nature writing by Robert Macfarlane, Kathleen Jamie, Adam Nicolson, David Gange and Amy Liptrot, which features Scottish islands at the British archipelago’s farthest Atlantic edges. These accounts speak to the cognitive and imaginative challenges of the Anthropocene, bringing deep time and planetary interconnections into view, evoking temporal scales that range from 600 million years in the past to millions of years in the future, oceanic tides that move to the pull of celestial bodies, and animals whose migrations trace lines across the globe. They also enable us to think through more elusive Anthropocene effects – its uncanniness, and the way in which it requires us to imagine ourselves as spectres haunting the deep time of the future. At the same time, these works offer a glimpse of alternative, interim narratives in which we learn to be better ancestors for human generations still to come.
Metadata
Item Type: | Book Section |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © Cambridge University Press 2021. This chapter has been published in a revised form in The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Anthropocene https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108683111. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution or re-use. |
Keywords: | Anthropocene; Deep time; New Nature Writing; archipelagic perspectives; future perfect tense; Scottish islands |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of English (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 19 Aug 2019 16:12 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jan 2024 13:01 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108683111 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
Series Name: | Cambridge Companions to Literature |
Identification Number: | 10.1017/9781108683111.019 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:148867 |