In 2015, when Roy Scranton took inspiration from Michel de Montaigne’s essay for his book, Learning to Die in the Anthropocene, he operated what could be seen as a rather typical move from current crises to an enlightened past, to reflect on the end of a civilization. In reverse, we might ask what knowing about the impending doom and human responsibility does to our reading and interpretation of Renaissance authors who grappled with the early signs of an out-of-control environmental exploitation and the devastation of, to name only one space, the New World. Could their critiques, their unease about the changing world be read anew as an early form of climate anxiety? Could their taste for eschatology have something to do with an environmental consciousness? The session will ask whether there could be such a thing as Renaissance doomerism.
Suggested lines of inquiry:
doomerism
anxiety
hope in the dark (Rebecca Solnit)
escalating crises
temptation to ignore impending doom/as well as reflections on it
extinction
survival (manual for)
temporality of environmental anxiety
Care
the unthinkable / Stories vs Histories (Amitav Ghosh)
literature of despair/literature of hope
We are open to submissions in art history/philosophy/literature/history, and seeking papers for a standard session or roundtable.
Submissions due no later than July 20th. Please send your full name, current affiliation, paper title (15-word maximum), abstract (150-word maximum), PhD completion date (past or expected), keywords, and a 1-page non-narrative curriculum vitae to Phillip John Usher [email protected] and Pauline Goul ([email protected]).
