Lagoonscapes

The Venice Journal of Environmental Humanities

Seeing beyond the Anthropocene with Joyce and Beckett

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Abstract

This article suggests that the literary works of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett may offer a means of ‘seeing beyond the Anthropocene’. A close look at Joyce’s “The Dead” and the “Proteus” and “Penelope” episodes of Ulysses as well as at Beckett’s play Endgame and other works will show how these writers’ distinct ways of looking at the world, and the life and death of mortal human beings, provide radical critiques of (and perhaps alternatives to) anthropocentric idealism. Their insights are still highly relevant today as the ecological crisis demands a fundamental reorientation of the (post)human relationship with the earth.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: May 8, 2024 | Accepted: June 16, 2024 | Published Dec. 6, 2024 | Language: en

Keywords Posthuman • James Joyce • Samuel Beckett • Ecology • Anthropocene

Copyright © 2024 Michael Kane. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/LGSP/2785-2709/2024/02/011