Uncivilising the Anthropocene: Post-Environmentalism and The Dark Mountain Project

• Author / Creator

  MacQueen, Jessica L

• This thesis explores the post-environmentalist network of writers, artists, and thinkers known as The Dark Mountain Project. It does so by examining Dark Mountain as a literary and cultural phenomenon that has generated a burgeoning literary community and subculture of uncivilisation in response to ecocide in the Anthropocene. I implement a method of analysis drawn from the environmental humanities to examine the cultural dynamics of environmental crisis, with particular emphasis on the role of storytellers in shaping perceptions of the future. I utilize a comparative approach to measure the project’s emerging philosophy of uncivilisation against more established concepts in radical ecology, including Timothy Morton’s dark ecology and Deep Ecology. I introduce the concept of negative eco-aesthetics to describe the quality of darkness and negativity that characterizes Dark Mountain’s uncivilised writing, and demonstrate how such writing can reinvigorate our current inability to imagine possible futures beyond the current forecast of collapse.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • The Dark Mountain Project
  • Timothy Morton
  • Radical Ecology
  • Environmentalism
  • Deep Ecology
  • Civilisation
  • Ecological Thought
  • Anti-Civilisation
  • Paul Kingsnorth
  • Ecocriticism
  • Ecocide
  • Post-Environmentalism
  • Uncivilisation
  • Community
  • Anthropocene
  • Collapse
  • Dark Ecology
  • Environmental Humanities

• Graduation date

  Spring 2015

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3513V27H

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.