The Great Chain of Vibrancy: Scalar Remanences in Contemporary Climate Change Fiction
This article provides a reading of Cynan Jones’s The Long Dry (2006) in the light of one of the topoi most closely associated with the Renaissance’s, i.e., Tillyard’s great chain of being. Starting from a consideration of what can be considered as the novel’s neo-baroque aesthetics displaying a stro...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée
2022-06-01
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| Series: | Études Britanniques Contemporaines |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/ebc/11705 |
| _version_ | 1818468931912859648 |
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| author | Jean-Michel Ganteau |
| author_facet | Jean-Michel Ganteau |
| author_sort | Jean-Michel Ganteau |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article provides a reading of Cynan Jones’s The Long Dry (2006) in the light of one of the topoi most closely associated with the Renaissance’s, i.e., Tillyard’s great chain of being. Starting from a consideration of what can be considered as the novel’s neo-baroque aesthetics displaying a strong taste for correspondences, it shows how the hierarchical system of the times is replaced by a more horizontal one in which human exceptionalism is shown to be problematical in the context of a period dominated by neo-materialist, post-human considerations. It goes on to address the sense of bafflement inherent in the revision of our conception of scale in the singular so as to reveal a plurality of scales as an evocation of a neo-sublime evocation of the Anthropocene and its attendant hyperobjects. It concludes on the prevalence of interdependences between human subjects and their natural and cosmic environment, promoting a vision of the living world as radically embedded and submitted to the material experience of transcorporeality. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T21:17:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f95ecf8579a94545961b0624bb4e2fe5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1168-4917 2271-5444 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T21:17:20Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Études Britanniques Contemporaines |
| spelling | doaj.art-f95ecf8579a94545961b0624bb4e2fe52022-12-22T02:29:38ZengPresses Universitaires de la MéditerranéeÉtudes Britanniques Contemporaines1168-49172271-54442022-06-016210.4000/ebc.11705The Great Chain of Vibrancy: Scalar Remanences in Contemporary Climate Change FictionJean-Michel GanteauThis article provides a reading of Cynan Jones’s The Long Dry (2006) in the light of one of the topoi most closely associated with the Renaissance’s, i.e., Tillyard’s great chain of being. Starting from a consideration of what can be considered as the novel’s neo-baroque aesthetics displaying a strong taste for correspondences, it shows how the hierarchical system of the times is replaced by a more horizontal one in which human exceptionalism is shown to be problematical in the context of a period dominated by neo-materialist, post-human considerations. It goes on to address the sense of bafflement inherent in the revision of our conception of scale in the singular so as to reveal a plurality of scales as an evocation of a neo-sublime evocation of the Anthropocene and its attendant hyperobjects. It concludes on the prevalence of interdependences between human subjects and their natural and cosmic environment, promoting a vision of the living world as radically embedded and submitted to the material experience of transcorporeality.http://journals.openedition.org/ebc/11705Cynan JonesThe Long DryAnthropoceneclimate change fictioncorrespondencesembeddings |
| spellingShingle | Jean-Michel Ganteau The Great Chain of Vibrancy: Scalar Remanences in Contemporary Climate Change Fiction Études Britanniques Contemporaines Cynan Jones The Long Dry Anthropocene climate change fiction correspondences embeddings |
| title | The Great Chain of Vibrancy: Scalar Remanences in Contemporary Climate Change Fiction |
| title_full | The Great Chain of Vibrancy: Scalar Remanences in Contemporary Climate Change Fiction |
| title_fullStr | The Great Chain of Vibrancy: Scalar Remanences in Contemporary Climate Change Fiction |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Great Chain of Vibrancy: Scalar Remanences in Contemporary Climate Change Fiction |
| title_short | The Great Chain of Vibrancy: Scalar Remanences in Contemporary Climate Change Fiction |
| title_sort | great chain of vibrancy scalar remanences in contemporary climate change fiction |
| topic | Cynan Jones The Long Dry Anthropocene climate change fiction correspondences embeddings |
| url | http://journals.openedition.org/ebc/11705 |
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