Extinction and Judgment: Misanthropy in the Anthropocene
0
조회
0
다운로드
2
인용
0
참고문헌
키워드
초록
One of the most striking cultural developments in recent years is the increasing willingness of scholars, intellectuals, and producers of mass culture to express the view that human beings are hopelessly destructive life-forms. Since the emergence of modern industry, the activities of human beings have inflicted incalculable damage to the natural world in the form of habitat destruction and the loss of biodiversity, the acidification of the oceans, the depletion of non-renewable resources, and the irreversible alteration of the climate. The concept of the Anthropocene, which has emerged as a prominent term in the scholarly humanities, holds that humans have attained powers of so great a magnitude as to bring about a new geological era. Works of criticism as well as of film and television now openly raise the question as to whether the earth would be better off without the species that threatens other species with extinction. According to these works, human beings are the greatest threat to life on the planet. This article argues that such a fixation on the prospect of human extinction in the West does not arise out of the desire to persuade human beings to change their destructive ways, but instead reflects a form of nihilistic confusion in which the liberal West wishes to destroy the foundations of its civilization while at the same time seeking to spread its view of autonomy as the highest value to the rest of the globe. In unraveling this contradiction, the article examines works of cinema such as the science fiction film Prometheus and engages the work of theorists and thinkers such as Claire Colebrook, John Gray, and Jean Baudrillard.
Abstract
One of the most striking cultural developments in recent years is the increasing willingness of scholars, intellectuals, and producers of mass culture to express the view that human beings are hopelessly destructive life-forms. Since the emergence of modern industry, the activities of human beings have inflicted incalculable damage to the natural world in the form of habitat destruction and the loss of biodiversity, the acidification of the oceans, the depletion of non-renewable resources, and the irreversible alteration of the climate. The concept of the Anthropocene, which has emerged as a prominent term in the scholarly humanities, holds that humans have attained powers of so great a magnitude as to bring about a new geological era. Works of criticism as well as of film and television now openly raise the question as to whether the earth would be better off without the species that threatens other species with extinction. According to these works, human beings are the greatest threat to life on the planet. This article argues that such a fixation on the prospect of human extinction in the West does not arise out of the desire to persuade human beings to change their destructive ways, but instead reflects a form of nihilistic confusion in which the liberal West wishes to destroy the foundations of its civilization while at the same time seeking to spread its view of autonomy as the highest value to the rest of the globe. In unraveling this contradiction, the article examines works of cinema such as the science fiction film Prometheus and engages the work of theorists and thinkers such as Claire Colebrook, John Gray, and Jean Baudrillard.
참고문헌 (28)
- Arendt, Hannah, "Between Past and Future" (2006), Penguin
- Baudrillard, Jean, "The Spirit of Terrorism" (2003), Verso
- Baudrillard, Jean, "Symbolic Exchange and Death" (1993), Sage
- "Bitter Lake. Directed by Adam Curtis", British Broadcasting Corporation, ~ (2015)
- "The Cabin in the Woods. Directed by Drew Goddard, performance by Kristen Connolly", Mutant Enemy Productions, ~ (2012)
- "A Clockwork Orange. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, performance by Malcolm McDowell", Polaris Productions and Hawk Films, ~ (1971)
- Colebrook, Claire, "Death of the PostHuman: Essays on Extinction, Volume 1" (2014), Open Humanities Press
- Colebrook, Claire, "Not Symbiosis, Not Now: Why Anthropogenic Climate Change is Not Really Human", The Oxford Literary Review, 34(2), pp.185~209 (2012)
- Derrida, Jacques, "Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and the New International" (1994), Routledge
- "Ex Machina. Directed by Alex Garland, performance by Alicia Vikander", Film4, ~ (2014)
- "The Fugitive. Directed by Andrew Davis, performance by Harrison Ford", Kopelson Entertainment, ~ (1993)
- Gray, John, "Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals" (2003), Granta
- "Harrison Bergeron. Directed by Bruce Pittman, performance by Sean Astin", Atlantis Films, ~ (1995)
- Kirkman, Robert, "The Walking Dead" (2003), Image Comics
- "Melancholia. Directed by Lars von Trier, performance by Kirsten Dunst", Zentropa Entertainments, ~ (2011)
- Nietzsche, Friedrich, "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" (2006), Cambridge University Press
- Nolan, Jonathan, "Westworld", HBO Entertainment and Bad Robot Productions, ~ (2016)
- "Prometheus. Directed by Ridley Scott, performance by Noomi Rapace", Scott Free Productions, ~ (2012)
- "The Second Renaissance. Directed by Mahiro Maeda, performance by Julia Fletcher", Village Roadshow Pictures, ~ (2003)
- "The Story of Mankind. Directed by Irwin Allen, performance by Ronald Colman", Cambridge Productions, ~ (1957)
- "The Third Man. Directed by Carol Reed, performance by Joseph Cotten", London Films, ~ (1949)
- "Watchmen. Directed by Zack Snyder, performance by Jackie Earle Haley", Warner Brothers Pictures, ~ (2009)
- Whitehead, Colson, "Zone One" (2011), Doubleday
- Žižek, Slavoj, "The Parallax View" (2006), The MIT Press