Against the Anthropocene? Epidemics in J.G. Ballard's Short Stories
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8865614 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Dominika Oramus (0000-0002-1376-7062, Institute of English Studies, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 101 |
| Issue | 8 |
| Pages | 998-1008 |
| Publication date | 2020-11-16 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | English Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-838X • E-ISSN: 1744-4217 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0013838x.2020.1847892 |
| OpenAlex | W3112178747 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 10 |
This essay attempts to demonstrate Ballard's stance against the Anthropocene by discussing three of his short stories “The Voices of Time”, “Myths of the Near Future” and “News from the Sun”. All three are detailed depictions of global epidemics that invisibly kill off humankind. All three introduce a metaphorically “geological” time scale: Ballard constructs similes whose vehicles are mineral strata thousands of years into the future. Thus, reading them today as uncannily prophetic Anthropocene fiction is tempting, though misleading. I hope to point out that Ballard's narrators are disinterested in conservationism; quite the opposite, they suggest that only by refraining from action and letting the clockwork of the Universe slowly unwind, are people able to merge with nature
Aesthetics · Anthropocene · Art · Environmental ethics · Formalism (music · Literature · Merge (version control · Mythology · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Computer Science · Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature · Utopian, Dystopian, and Speculative Fiction · History · Philosophy
| Highly cited | No |
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