Narrating and Archiving Nature: Tom Committa's The Nature Book as a New Genre of the Anthropocene

Creative Commons License

Alıyev J.

Writin (Hi)stories in the Anthropocene, Aachen, Almanya, 4 - 06 Eylül 2024, ss.3, (Özet Bildiri)

  • Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Özet Bildiri
  • Basıldığı Şehir: Aachen
  • Basıldığı Ülke: Almanya
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.3
  • İstanbul Yeni Yüzyıl Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

The intricate interplay between posthuman historiography, literary critique, and the Anthropocene context drives a quest for new historical and representational paradigms beyond human-centric perspectives. Amidst this complex quest, Tom Committa's recent posthumanist novel, The Nature Book (2023), emerges as a significant touchstone. By introducing the novel concept of a 'literary supercut (A Brief),' Committa not only pioneers a new narrative genre but also crafts a fictional realm devoid of human presence. By meticulously curating natural descriptions from 300 canonical Anglophone novels, Committa challenges narrative conventions, shifting the focus to nature descriptions and questioning the perception of humans as exclusive architects of historical agency. This creative endeavor results in a contemplative narrative that navigates what I contend is the 'literary long durée,' functioning as a comprehensive literary chronicle that traces the evolving representation of nature across diverse literary epochs. Simultaneously, it facilitates the observation of the unfolding Anthropocene, revealing its stratigraphic foundation and intricate discursive-affective dimensions. This alignment is further reinforced by Erica Fudge's Anthropocene historiography perspective, advocating for a reinterpretation of historical documents and crafting a 'holistic history' transcending human-non-human boundaries. I argue that Committa's novel prompts readers to contemplate the intricate relationship between nature and storytelling, expanding beyond human history to encompass a broader natural history. As a result, the novel takes on the character of an 'Anthropocene novel,' exploring the interplay of human agency and more-thanhuman nature while crystallizing as a 'concept art' or '(hyper)object of the literary (hi)story,' meticulously woven from centuries of authors' portrayals of animals, landforms, and weather patterns