Open-Ended Stories
Extinction Narratives in Genome Time
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8102816 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Stephanie S Turner (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 55-82 |
| Publication date | 2007-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Literature and medicine (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0278-9671 • E-ISSN: 1080-6571 |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/lm.2008.0007 |
| PMID | 18290362 |
| OpenAlex | W2058988864 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
| References cited | 1 |
As a mode of narrative, scientific accounts of extinction trace the decline of species into total loss. With anthropogenic extinction, the narrative of loss becomes an apocalyptic mode of expression: extinction, the endpoint in the drama of threatened and endangered species, resists representation in both popular science writing and fiction. This paper examines how techniques of genetic science and assisted reproduction, such as DNA extraction from recently extinct animals and cross-species surrogacy in backbreeding, work within and against the apocalyptic mode of expression in extinction accounts. Hypothetical and fictional scenarios of recuperating extinction through these techniques reflect the bodiless, multi-medial viability of DNA. Developing Jay Clayton's notion of "genome time," the sense of a "perpetual present" created by the infinite mutability of the DNA molecule, I examine woolly mammoth and thylacine recuperation efforts to show how such projects revise evolutionary narratives to fulfill cultural imperatives
Aesthetics · Art · Biology · Drama · Endangered species · Environmental ethics · Evolutionary biology · Extinction (optical mineralogy · Extinction event · Genealogy · Linguistics · Literature · Narrative · Sociology · Threatened species · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Environmental Philosophy and Ethics · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Demography · Ecology · History · Paleontology · Philosophy
Life Decoded
Genetic Conservation in a Climate of Loss
Anabiosis and the Liminal Geographies of De/extinction
Toward a Minor Science Fiction
The Endling Taxidermy of Lonesome George
The Future of the Extinction Plot
Conceptualizing histories of multispecies entanglements
Affect, technoscience and textual analysis
Extinction
From ark to bank
As dead as a dodo
Saved by the Moon
Entanglements of Time, Temperature, Technology, and Place in Ancient DNA Research
| Unique citing works | 13 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,76 |
| Citation span | 2009 - 2025 (17) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 13 |