IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/nglost/v15y2021i2-3p181-192n12.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Retrospective Redundancy: The Anthropocene and the Crisis of Historical Comprehension

Author

Listed:
  • Leskanich Alexandre

    (Independent Scholar, London, W14 0NS, UK)

Abstract

This essay contends that the Anthropocene as a historicization in planetary history is symptomatic of a lurking crisis in historical comprehension. This crisis – rooted in the technologically-induced incongruence between past and future – more generally speaks to the consequent diminishment of human historical comprehension under conditions of unprecedented anthropogenic upheaval, and, ultimately, to the inadequacy of the historicizing impulse itself. Thus the Anthropocene, I suggest, fails in its retrospective redundancy to compensate for the incoherence of the historical situation it aims to comprehend, and is further symptomatic of a world that has not merely been historically mismanaged, but in which historical comprehension has itself broken down.

Suggested Citation

  • Leskanich Alexandre, 2021. "Retrospective Redundancy: The Anthropocene and the Crisis of Historical Comprehension," New Global Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 15(2-3), pages 181-192, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:nglost:v:15:y:2021:i:2-3:p:181-192:n:12
    DOI: 10.1515/ngs-2021-0016
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/ngs-2021-0016
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/ngs-2021-0016?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:nglost:v:15:y:2021:i:2-3:p:181-192:n:12. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.