The Anthropocene
This course was available in the past and may be presented again as part of the curriculum.
Geologists are telling us that the whole territory of modern history, from the end of World War II to the present, forms the threshold to a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene – the Age of Man. What does that mean in terms of how we think about both Man and Nature? In this symposium we will read a selection of texts, ancient and modern, that inform our view of the Anthropocene.
Course Outline
Hesiod Works and Days: The Ages of Man lines 109-200 (pdf)
Francis Bacon, “Of Vicissitude of Things” LVIII https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Essays_of_Francis_Bacon/LVIII_Of_Vicissitude_of_Things
Juliana Spahr Gentle Now (pdf)
“Are we in the “Anthropocene”?” Author(s): John Carey Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , Vol. 113, No. 15 (April 12, 2016), pp. 3908-3909 Published by: National Academy of Sciences (pdf)