Second session (15:30-17:30) | Back to programme
By Marco Caracciolo
The opposition between anthropocentrism and biocentrism involves, fundamentally, a clash of values: should we prioritize human interests (anthropocentrism) or should we position the human within a broader category of living beings whose interests may diverge from those of our own species (biocentrism)? This talk explores the ways in which narrative, as a practice fully embedded in human affairs, may negotiate this culturally and ideologically fraught divide. Through an analysis of two contemporary novels dealing with environmental issues (Ilija Trojanow’s EisTau and Richard Powers’s The Overstory), I investigate the stylistic strategies through which narrative can trigger affective and epistemological tensions whose ultimate goal, I argue, is to put pressure on anthropocentric assumptions.
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