When a linear model of cause-and-effect sequentiality is extended to spatio-temporal processes beyond the human scale, we learn that such linear thinking might beget a reductive understanding of the Anthropocene that would, in turn, prevent us from fully grasping the phenomenon that emerges from this human-non-human enmeshment. The slow and non-linear pace of an ecological crisis often find manifestation in the form of a spatial as well temporal rupture in the storyworld, formal strategies that provide templates for framing a distinctive spatio-temporal way of living in the Anthropocene. Building on Marco Caracciolo’s argument regarding narratives as having the potential to promote such a non-linear thinking, this paper examines the extent to which negation as an affect-laden strategy to mark the spatio-temporal rupture has been employed by Jemisin in her postapocalyptic Broken Earth (2015-17) trilogy. It also entails adopting a “second-generation” cognitive approach to narrative, which highlights the reader’s involvement in making sense of the narrative affectively as well as cognitively. In the texts, the preapocalyptic world of the land of Stillness emerges in unexpected ways and blends nonlinearly with the postapocalyptic world, thus complicating and slowing down the reader’s spatial and temporal experience of disaster respectively. The paper also explores the possibility of the trilogy having been constructed upon the rhizomatic Deleuze and Guattari model that refers to the coexistence of temporal scales within a single spatial location. In doing so, the paper ultimately looks at how non-linear narrative techniques can have real-world implications for readers living in the Anthropocene.

Authors:
Monika Mishra, National Institute of Science Education and Research, India

About the Presenter(s)
Monika Mishra is a doctoral student in English Literature at the National Institute of Science Education and Research, HBNI, India. Her thesis focuses on looking at the issues of climate change through the lens of intersectionality.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/monika-mishra-b15980257

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