Digressions in Deep Time
Ecocritical Approaches to Literature and the Arts
Published on 18. June 2024
Book
Hardback
334 pages
978-1-6669-4841-7 (ISBN)
Description
"Deep time" is a term which attempts to capture temporal scales far beyond human comprehension. These are stretches of time epitomised by geological and cosmic scale processes, vast enough to make the entirety of human existence appear as little more than a footnote. The past few years have seen a boom in texts dedicated to the study of deep time, extending across a broad range of disciplines which fall markedly outside of its geological roots. These studies are unified by two ideas in particular: that deep time thinking and ecocriticism should be considered in conjunction, and that literature and the arts play a vital role in fostering a deep time awareness. Digressions in Deep Time is the first collection of essays which considers the multifarious representations of deep time across literature and the arts, assembling the work of a wide range of prominent scholars whose research frequently engages with temporality and ecocriticism. Featured contributions include work by the Pulitzer-prize winning author John McPhee, who popularised the term deep time in the late seventies, as well as chapters by Richard Irvine (author of An Anthropology of Deep Time), Benjamin Morgan (author of The Outward Mind) and Andrew Tate (author of Apocalyptic Fiction).
Reviews / Votes
This is both a deeply significant and timely intervention in the field of ecocriticism. Befitting its subject, the book ranges widely from classical antiquity to Ali Smith, T.S. Eliot to videogames, John Cage to graphic novels. Deep time may defy human comprehension but these essays demonstrate the importance of art and literature for making climate science accessible to human understanding. -- Paul March-Russell, author of Modernism and Science Fiction "This collection is as rich and layered as the geological strata it seeks to understand. Charting new paths through ecocriticism and the human imagination, Digressions in Deep Time doesn't just delve into deep time-it reworks our understanding of it." -- Vincent Ialenti, author of Deep Time Reckoning (MIT Press) and Research Associate at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt's Department of Environmental StudiesMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
18 BW Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
636 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-6669-4841-7 (9781666948417)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Digressions in Deep Time
Ecocritical Approaches to Literature and the Arts
E-Book
06/2024
1st Edition
Lexington Books
€111.99
Available for download
Persons
Declan Lloyd is lecturer and teaches across the English Literature, History and Sociology departments at Lancaster University.
Warren Mortimer is lecturer and poet, and holds a PhD in creative writing from Lancaster University.
Warren Mortimer is lecturer and poet, and holds a PhD in creative writing from Lancaster University.
Content
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: "To Brood Upon These Magnitudes": A Digression on Deep Time in Literature and the Arts
Declan Lloyd
Part 1: Deep Time Poetics
Introductory Keynote: Deep Time Poetics
Andrew Tate
Chapter 1: The Horizons of Time: A Psycholinguistic Exploration of Spatiotemporal Metaphor in Recent Studies of Deep Time
Emil Tangham Hazelhurst
Chapter 2: Deep Time Trauma and Dantean Salvation in T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets
Warren Mortimer
Chapter 3: "That Huge and Microscopic Career of Time": William Carlos Williams's Time-Lapse Poetics
Sean Keck
Chapter 4: Deep Time Necrodidactics: Poetics and Pedagogy of the Anthropocene
Roger Davis
Chapter 5: "Through the Vista of Geologic Time": Literary Naturalism and the Ecological Sublime in the Writings of John Burroughs
Stephen Mercier
Part 2: Deep Time Narratives
Introductory Keynote: Pasts and Futures Present: Deep Time as Historical Narrative
Benjamin Morgan
Chapter 6: Deep Time in J. G. Ballard, or the "New Man" in the Mesh of Life
Joel Evans
Chapter 7: "Curlew or Curfew. You Choose": Nature, Politics, and Deep Time in Ali Smith's Seasonal Series
Flora Sagers
Chapter 8: The Call of the Void: Deep Time in the Early Science Fiction of H. G. Wells and Isaac Asimov
William Nolen
Chapter 9: Deep History and the Pursuit of Pure Origins in the Work of William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy
Bernard Joy
Chapter 10: The Great "Enmuddening": Deep Time in Classical Antiquity and the Example of Xenophanes
James Calvin Taylor
Part 3: Deep Time Aesthetics
Introductory Keynote: The Concealment of Deep Time
Richard Irvine
Chapter 11: Visualizing Deep Time: Environmental Narratives and Temporal Spatialization in EcoComix and Graphic Novels
Anthony Enns
Chapter 12: Art in One Million Years: Deep Time Aesthetics through Deleuze's Material Notions of Time
Jakub Zdebik
Chapter 13: Architectures of Critical Mass: Expressions of Deep Time in Contemporary Design Practice
Maria Gloria Robalino
Chapter 14: Gamifying Deep Time: Archeogaming and the Anthropocene in the Horizon Franchise
Sarah Wagstaffe
A Q&A with John McPhee
Afterword: The Deep Time Sublime
Declan Lloyd and Warren Mortimer
Index
About the Editors, Keynotes and Contributors
Acknowledgments
Introduction: "To Brood Upon These Magnitudes": A Digression on Deep Time in Literature and the Arts
Declan Lloyd
Part 1: Deep Time Poetics
Introductory Keynote: Deep Time Poetics
Andrew Tate
Chapter 1: The Horizons of Time: A Psycholinguistic Exploration of Spatiotemporal Metaphor in Recent Studies of Deep Time
Emil Tangham Hazelhurst
Chapter 2: Deep Time Trauma and Dantean Salvation in T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets
Warren Mortimer
Chapter 3: "That Huge and Microscopic Career of Time": William Carlos Williams's Time-Lapse Poetics
Sean Keck
Chapter 4: Deep Time Necrodidactics: Poetics and Pedagogy of the Anthropocene
Roger Davis
Chapter 5: "Through the Vista of Geologic Time": Literary Naturalism and the Ecological Sublime in the Writings of John Burroughs
Stephen Mercier
Part 2: Deep Time Narratives
Introductory Keynote: Pasts and Futures Present: Deep Time as Historical Narrative
Benjamin Morgan
Chapter 6: Deep Time in J. G. Ballard, or the "New Man" in the Mesh of Life
Joel Evans
Chapter 7: "Curlew or Curfew. You Choose": Nature, Politics, and Deep Time in Ali Smith's Seasonal Series
Flora Sagers
Chapter 8: The Call of the Void: Deep Time in the Early Science Fiction of H. G. Wells and Isaac Asimov
William Nolen
Chapter 9: Deep History and the Pursuit of Pure Origins in the Work of William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy
Bernard Joy
Chapter 10: The Great "Enmuddening": Deep Time in Classical Antiquity and the Example of Xenophanes
James Calvin Taylor
Part 3: Deep Time Aesthetics
Introductory Keynote: The Concealment of Deep Time
Richard Irvine
Chapter 11: Visualizing Deep Time: Environmental Narratives and Temporal Spatialization in EcoComix and Graphic Novels
Anthony Enns
Chapter 12: Art in One Million Years: Deep Time Aesthetics through Deleuze's Material Notions of Time
Jakub Zdebik
Chapter 13: Architectures of Critical Mass: Expressions of Deep Time in Contemporary Design Practice
Maria Gloria Robalino
Chapter 14: Gamifying Deep Time: Archeogaming and the Anthropocene in the Horizon Franchise
Sarah Wagstaffe
A Q&A with John McPhee
Afterword: The Deep Time Sublime
Declan Lloyd and Warren Mortimer
Index
About the Editors, Keynotes and Contributors