220115 Anthropocene History? Perspectives from the Global South and North (S) (WiSe 2024/2025)

The current diagnosis of the “Anthropocene” – the Age of Humans – does not only have very material implications for present and future human societies on this planet, but also, on a more epistemic level, for the traditional division between the humanities/ social sciences and the natural sciences (Chakrabarty 2009).

This course starts out with an introduction into what the “Anthropocene” is, and with a review of the current state of the art on the concept and its dating as to the Anthropocene Working Group and researchers associated with it (Steffen et al., McNeill et al, Rockström et al.). This involves interdisciplinary perspectives from Earth System and Climate sciences. We then dive into several theoretical texts by historians and literary scholars (Chakrabarty, Ghosh, Mauelshagen, Simon, Latour and others) who reflect on the implications of this new era for the humanities and historical research in particular. In a next step we will look at voices critical of the concept of the “Anthropocene”, suggested alternatives (think “Capitalocene”, “Plantationocene” etc.) and consider their scope. Most of these perspectives have emerged from postcolonial studies, which have rightfully pointed to the unequal responsibilities and power differentials involved in the coming-about of the Anthropocene (Malm & Hornborg, Lewis & Maslin, Todd & Davis and others). In a last cycle we will look at conceptual and methodological approaches (Entangled History and the Environment, World System Analysis, Social Metabolism) that may be able to connect the humanities with the natural sciences in order to come to a more inclusive perspective of the present and how we got to this point in history.

This course is largely global in its geographical scope though it puts specific emphasis on the Americas in the pre-history of the Anthropocene. Its temporal scope reaches from the European Expansion to the present.

This course should ideally be studied in combination with the historical contextualization (HK) "Energy History of the Americas: 1492 to the ‘Great Acceleration’", they are offered as a module "en bloc" on Tuesady from 12 to 16.

Requirements for participation, required level

As this course is taught entirely in English, students should be ready and able to read and discuss research literature in English. It is always possible to ask questions or get explanations in German, Spanish or French, however.

Bibliography

Adeney Thomas, Julia. "Why the “Anthropocene” Is Not “Climate Change” and Why It Matters." Asia Global Online, 2019. https://www.asiaglobalonline.hku.hk/anthropocene-climate-change/.
Bonneuil, Christophe, and Jean-Baptiste Fressoz. The shock of the Anthropocene: The Earth, History, and us. London ; Brooklyn, NY: Verso, 2016.
Chakrabarty, Dipesh. "The Climate of History: Four Theses." Critical Inquiry 35, no. 2 (2009): 197-222.
———. "Postcolonial Studies and the Challenge of Climate Change." New Literary History 43, no. 1 (2012): 1-18.
Mauelshagen, Franz. "The Dirty Metaphysics of Fossil Freedom." In The Anthropocenic Turn: Interplay Between Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Responses to a New Age, edited by Gabriele Dürbeck and Philip Hüpkes. New York: Routledge, 2020.
McNeill, John Robert, and Peter Engelke. The Great Acceleration. An Environmental History of the Anthropocene Since 1945. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2014.