Thesis title: Letteratura e Antropocene: forma, etica, estetica
The aim of my dissertation is to explore the relationship between the concept of the Anthropocene and the literary field from two perspectives: the theoretical and the critical-applicative. Despite the fact that the term was conceived in the field of geology, in recent years the Anthropocene has proved to be an extremely productive paradigm in various fields of cultural reflection. The purpose of this thesis is to observe how and in what forms the paradigm can be productive in the field of literary theory. In order to do this, the thesis starts the discussion from the theoretical framework of new materialisms, referring in particular to Karen Barad's theory of agential realism. The intention is to demonstrate how the main characteristics of the Anthropocene are those of performativity and processuality. On the basis of Barad's ethich-onto-epistemological scheme, the discussion develops along three main axes that also guide the critical analysis: that of form, that of aesthetics, and that of ethics. The literary context to which reference is made is the contemporary European and Anglo-American. The thesis is therefore divided into two parts: the first two chapters develop the theoretical discussion, while chapters three to five develop the critical one. The first chapter reconstructs the framework of the international cultural debate around the concept of the Anthropocene, referring in particular to the deconstruction of the nature-culture binarism; it then reconstructs a state of the art from a transnational perspective, aiming to relate the different methodological discussions concerning ecocriticism in particular and the environmental humanities in general. The second chapter provides a philosophical and literary reflection, starting from Karen Barad's theories. The discussion focuses in particular on the concepts of causality, agency, space-time, hauntology, possibility and proximity. The third chapter opens the second part of the thesis and is dedicated to the formal and comparative analysis of the novels Gli Increati (2015) by Antonio Moresco and Terminus Radieux (2014) by Antoine Volodine. The chapter carries out a close reading analysis of the two works in the light of the critical and theoretical orientations presented in the second chapter of the thesis, anchoring itself in particular in the econarratological perspective. Starting with the concept of apocalypse, the chapter devotes a first part to analysing the way in which the two novels deconstruct the narrative aspects most commonly associated with the narrative of the end of the world, particularly with regard to the formal categories of space and time; this is followed by an analysis of the complex vocalic instance, which shows how such a deconstruction also takes place at the linguistic and grammatical level; finally, attention is paid to the metanarrative aspects of the two novels through an analysis of the metalessic phenomena contained therein. The fourth chapter is dedicated to an aesthetic analysis, in the context of ecohorror, ecogothic and ecosublime, of the works Annihilation (2014), the first novel of the Southern Reach trilogy by the American writer Jeff VanderMeer, and Sirene (2007) by the Italian writer Laura Pugno. In particular, the chapter identifies the different types of hybrid present in the novels - the hybrid through montage, the hybrid through contamination, the hybrid through anthropophagy - useful in the creation of non-human characters. The next chapter is dedicated to the analysis of the representation of space according to the dictates of the ecosublime, analysing the resemantisation of the motif of ruins in an ecological and posthuman way. Finally, the fifth chapter is dedicated to the concept of what I call "climatic realism", the formulation of which is supported by the analysis of case studies that are useful to give an account of the taxonomic order proposed according to three criteria: climatic realism of the first degree; climatic realism of the second degree; climatic realism of the third degree, also known as speculative realism. The analysis of the works is conducted specifically in relation to the ethical question; for works in the first and second categories, whose discussion is developed in close argumentative correlation, the novels Après la vague (2018) by Sandrine Collette, Something new under the Sun (2021) by Alexandra Kleeman and Erosion by Lorenza Pieri (2022) will be analysed. For the third level of climate realism, Notre vie dans les forêts (2017) by Marie Darrieussecq and The Stone Gods (2007) by Jeanette Winterson will be analysed. In terms of the type of study conducted, the chapter favours a thematic analysis aimed at understanding the ways in which the themes and tropes used in the novels may or may not contribute to the formation of an ecological consciousness.