The Morphology of Prometheus, Literary Geography and the Geoethical Project
This paper explores mappings, musings and ‘thought experiments’ in literary geography to consider how they may contribute to geoethical pedagogy and research. Representations of Prometheus from the fourteenth century onwards have traveled along three broad symbological roads: first, as the creator,...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2021-08-01
|
| Series: | Geosciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3263/11/8/340 |
| _version_ | 1797523685493440512 |
|---|---|
| author | Charles Travis |
| author_facet | Charles Travis |
| author_sort | Charles Travis |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper explores mappings, musings and ‘thought experiments’ in literary geography to consider how they may contribute to geoethical pedagogy and research. Representations of Prometheus from the fourteenth century onwards have traveled along three broad symbological roads: first, as the creator, and bringer of fire; second as a bound figure in chains, and thirdly, unbound. However, it was the harnessing of fire by our species a millennium prior that gave rise to the myth of Prometheus and set into motion the geophysical process of combustion which “facilitated the transformation of much of the terrestrial surface […] and in the process pushed the parameters of the earth system into a new geological epoch.” As the geophysicist Professor Michael Mann observes, global warming and loss of biodiversity constitutes an ethical problem. The remediation of the Prometheus myth in Mary Shelley’s <i>Frankenstein; or the modern Prometheus</i> (1818), Jonathan Fetter-Vorm’s <i>Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb</i> (2012) and William Golding’s novel <i>Lord of the Flies</i> (1954) provides the means to explore the geographical, historical and cultural contingencies of geoethical dilemmas contributing to the framing of the Anthropocene and <i>Gaia</i> heuristics. This paper argues for the necessity of scholars in the arts, humanities and geosciences to share and exchange idiographic and nomothetic perspectives in order to forge a geoethical dialectic that fuses poetic and positivistic methods into transcendent ontologies and epistemologies to address the existential questions of global warming and loss of biodiversity as we enter the age of the Anthropocene. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T08:46:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1e121e1679e74ff78273857ec3e8b7a5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-3263 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T08:46:32Z |
| publishDate | 2021-08-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Geosciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-1e121e1679e74ff78273857ec3e8b7a52023-11-22T07:48:00ZengMDPI AGGeosciences2076-32632021-08-0111834010.3390/geosciences11080340The Morphology of Prometheus, Literary Geography and the Geoethical ProjectCharles Travis0Department of History, University of Texas, Arlington, TX 76019, USAThis paper explores mappings, musings and ‘thought experiments’ in literary geography to consider how they may contribute to geoethical pedagogy and research. Representations of Prometheus from the fourteenth century onwards have traveled along three broad symbological roads: first, as the creator, and bringer of fire; second as a bound figure in chains, and thirdly, unbound. However, it was the harnessing of fire by our species a millennium prior that gave rise to the myth of Prometheus and set into motion the geophysical process of combustion which “facilitated the transformation of much of the terrestrial surface […] and in the process pushed the parameters of the earth system into a new geological epoch.” As the geophysicist Professor Michael Mann observes, global warming and loss of biodiversity constitutes an ethical problem. The remediation of the Prometheus myth in Mary Shelley’s <i>Frankenstein; or the modern Prometheus</i> (1818), Jonathan Fetter-Vorm’s <i>Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb</i> (2012) and William Golding’s novel <i>Lord of the Flies</i> (1954) provides the means to explore the geographical, historical and cultural contingencies of geoethical dilemmas contributing to the framing of the Anthropocene and <i>Gaia</i> heuristics. This paper argues for the necessity of scholars in the arts, humanities and geosciences to share and exchange idiographic and nomothetic perspectives in order to forge a geoethical dialectic that fuses poetic and positivistic methods into transcendent ontologies and epistemologies to address the existential questions of global warming and loss of biodiversity as we enter the age of the Anthropocene.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3263/11/8/340literary geographygeoethicsPrometheusArendtBenjamincombustion cultures |
| spellingShingle | Charles Travis The Morphology of Prometheus, Literary Geography and the Geoethical Project Geosciences literary geography geoethics Prometheus Arendt Benjamin combustion cultures |
| title | The Morphology of Prometheus, Literary Geography and the Geoethical Project |
| title_full | The Morphology of Prometheus, Literary Geography and the Geoethical Project |
| title_fullStr | The Morphology of Prometheus, Literary Geography and the Geoethical Project |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Morphology of Prometheus, Literary Geography and the Geoethical Project |
| title_short | The Morphology of Prometheus, Literary Geography and the Geoethical Project |
| title_sort | morphology of prometheus literary geography and the geoethical project |
| topic | literary geography geoethics Prometheus Arendt Benjamin combustion cultures |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3263/11/8/340 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT charlestravis themorphologyofprometheusliterarygeographyandthegeoethicalproject AT charlestravis morphologyofprometheusliterarygeographyandthegeoethicalproject |