This essay argues that the concept of deep time is essential to the intellectual history of the Anthropocene—the name widely (though not yet formally) used for our current geological epoch. Buffon’s Epochs of Nature, one of the earliest secular models of geological time in Enlightenment natural history, uses inscription as a metaphor to mark the advent of biological species, including humans, in the course of earth history. The Anthropocene extends this project of writing ourselves into the rock record. Buffon makes a productive interlocutor for the Anthropocene because he is one of the first to examine climate change and related constraints on human agency in the context of deep time. The essay examines Buffon’s natural history and associated Enlightenment discourses of primitive art and culture to gain a purchase on the challenges of scale posed by the Anthropocene.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
February 2015
Other|
February 01 2015
Deep Time at the Dawn of the Anthropocene
Noah Heringman
Noah Heringman
NOAH HERINGMAN teaches English at the University of Missouri. His latest book is Sciences of Antiquity: Romantic Antiquarianism, Natural History, and Knowledge Work (2013).
Search for other works by this author on:
Representations (2015) 129 (1): 56–85.
Citation
Noah Heringman; Deep Time at the Dawn of the Anthropocene. Representations 1 February 2015; 129 (1): 56–85. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/rep.2015.129.1.56
Download citation file:
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Client Account
You could not be signed in. Please check your email address / username and password and try again.
Could not validate captcha. Please try again.