Document Type
Reviews and Responses
Abstract
The Anthropocene is an informal epoch which tries to account for the human imprint on the geological record (see Crutzen and Stoermer 2000). Broken down, the word has two root meanings: Anthropos (humans) and cene (age or epoch). The Anthropocene reflects the idea that humans have changed the Earth’s system to the point where the species has a distinct presence in the geological strata—different layers of rock and sediment which build up, shift around, and erode over time. If formalized, the ‘Age of Humans’ would become an official part of the geological timescale, which extends beyond the most recent Holocene Epoch to the Hadean Eon over four billion years ago. Perhaps more significantly, the question of how to define the Anthropocene has led to a rising tide of noteworthy debates in unexpected circles, including the humanities.
Publication Date
2017-2018
Journal Title
UNIversitas
Volume
13
Issue
1
First Page
1
Last Page
8
Copyright
©2018 Thomas Barclay Larsen
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Larsen, Thomas Barclay
(2018)
"A Review by Larsen of Anthropocene Reading: Literary History in Geologic Times, Edited by Tobias Menley and Jesse Oak Taylor,"
UNIversitas: Journal of Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity: Vol. 13:
No.
1, Article 10.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/universitas/vol13/iss1/10
