RIS ID
128073
Abstract
The irony of the Anthropocene-an idea grounded in earth sciences-is that it acts to unground some of the foundational ideas about the world. It asks us to reevaluate and rethink the human-nature binary, to inhabit a world less hospitable and malleable than we dared to believe. I explore this notion of groundlessness by returning to a personally traumatic event that literally swept me off my feet-crossing a river. I argue that the experience of such corporeal vulnerability can provide fertile ground for reorienting our own perception. Delving into such experiences may be used to provoke and expand thinking with a view to grappling with the implications of living within conditions of an Anthropocenic world.
Publication Details
Westgate, J. (2017). Crossing Rivers, Revisiting Trauma, and Contemplating the Geo: Thinking into the Anthropocenic. GeoHumanities, 3 (1), 233-245.