Materiality, Responsibility and Anthropocene Thought in Robert Macfarlane’s and Kathleen Jamie’s Nature Writing

The concept of the Anthropocene, denoting humans as geological agents, severely complicates traditional Western distinctions between culture and nature, human nonhuman world. Contrary to anthropocentric accounts, new materialisms have established a post-humanist reading Anthropocene that destabilises such dichotomies, placing beings on par with world they encounter. This approach can also be found in New Nature Writing (NNW), body creative nonfiction seeks reconnect “human animal” ever-open question nature itself. A Robert Macfarlane’s work focus his recent Underland shows ways which growing awareness has influenced contemporary writing, allowing Macfarlane establish non-anthropocentric perspective following materialisms. While likewise adopting materialist stance, Kathleen Jamie’s collections naturalist essays nevertheless implications this ontological framework, particular regard ethics responsibility times Anthropocene.