Table Of ContentNarrating the Mesh
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Under the Sign of Nature: Explorations in Ecocriticism
Serenella Iovino, Anthony Lioi, and Kate Rigby, Editors
Michael P. Branch, SueEllen Campbell, and John Tallmadge, Senior Advisory Editors
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Narrating the Mesh
FORM AND STORY IN THE
ANTHROPOCENE
Marco Caracciolo
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA PRESS
CHARLOTTESVILLE AND LONDON
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University of Virginia Press
© 2021 by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper
First published 2021
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Caracciolo, Marco, author.
Title: Narrating the mesh : form and story in the anthropocene / Marco Caracciolo.
Description: Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press, 2021. | Series: Under the sign of
nature: explorations in ecocriticism | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifers: LCCN 2020038854 (print) | LCCN 2020038855 (ebook) | ISBN 9780813945828
(hardcover) | ISBN 9780813945835 (paperback) | ISBN 9780813945842 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Ecocriticism. | Narration (Rhetoric) | Fiction— History and criticism. |
Climatic changes in literature. | Human ecology.
Classifcation: LCC PN98.E36 C37 2021 (print) | LCC PN98.E36 (ebook) | DDC
808.3/923— dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020038854
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020038855
Cover art: Alcuin/iStock
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Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Narrative and Interlocking Forms 1
1. Complex Narrative in the Anthropocene 27
Part I. Nonlinearity
2. The Form of the Butterfy 51
3. Negative Strategies and Nonlinear Temporality in Postapocalyptic
Fiction 77
Part II. Interdependency
4. Five Ways of Looking at Nonhuman Actants 97
5. Minding the Anthropocene 115
Part III. Multiscalarity
6. Metaphorical Patterns in Anthropocene Fiction 139
With Andrei Ionescu and Ruben Fransoo
7. Metaphor, Scale, and the Value of Conceptual Trouble 159
Coda: Thinking beyond Literary Form 179
Notes 187
Works Cited 201
Index 219
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Acknowledgments
If this book exists, it is largely thanks to the European Research Council,
which sponsored the NARMESH project under the European Union’s
Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement
no. 714166). Conceived when I was an Italian working at the University
of Freiburg in Germany and hosted by Ghent University after I moved to
Belgium, NARMESH is very much a product of European integration. As
I write these lines in March 2020, the Covid-1 9 pandemic is shaking that
European project at its core—t he free circulation of people. Borders are
closed, air trafc and train services are almost at a standstill, people across
the continent are sheltering in place. While I am confdent that Covid-1 9
is not here to stay, I hope the outbreak will prove once and for all that Europe’s
only desirable future involves a strong commitment to a society based on
solidarity and resilience in the face of a radically unstable nonhuman world.
Just as the NARMESH project aims to bring into focus narrative’s
engagement with the “mesh” of human communities and nonhuman
phenomena (to use Timothy Morton’s terminology), this book benefted
enormously from a vast human mesh. My partner, Wibke Schniedermann,
made this fabric of connection so much more secure and vibrant. The core
members of the NARMESH team, Susannah Crockford, Shannon Lambert,
and Gry Ulstein, ofered tremendously helpful input throughout the writing
process. I feel immensely privileged to have worked day after day for more
than three years alongside such inspired, knowledgeable, and fun human
beings. I am also indebted to our many international guests and afliated
scholars and students—S anti Luca Famà, Ruben Fransoo, Kaori Inuma,
Andrei Ionescu, Kaisa Kortekallio, Delzi Laranjeira, Sue Lovell, Melissa
Luypaers, Reuben Martens, David Rodriguez, and Jonas Vanhove—f or their
rich contributions to the NARMESH project. Several colleagues visited us
in Ghent and delivered highly stimulating guest lectures, which have left a
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viii ACkNOwLEDGMENTS
deep mark on my ideas as they are articulated in this book; special thanks
go to Ridvan Askin, Jon Hegglund, Erin James, Merja Polvinen, and Alexa
Weik von Mossner for engaging in an extended conversation with me and
my colleagues.
Ghent University ofered a fantastic environment to develop my think-
ing on narrative form and the nonhuman. I discussed this project with Lars
Bernaerts, Stef Craps, Mahlu Mertens, and River Ramuglia, all of whom
provided thoughtful feedback and inspiration. I would also like to thank
Boyd Zenner, my editor at the University of Virginia Press, for her con-
tinued support and astute advice. The editors of the Under the Sign of
Nature series and three anonymous readers ofered insightful commentary
on various versions of this book.
Three chapters contain published material: chapter 3 draws on my
“Negative Strategies and World Disruption in Postapocalyptic Fiction,” Style
52, no. 3 (2018): 222–4 1, used by permission of Penn State University Press;
chapter 4 on “Notes for an Econarratological Theory of Character,” Fron-
tiers of Narrative Studies 4, no. 1 (2018): 172– 89, used by permission of Walter
de Gruyter; chapter 6 on “Metaphorical Patterns in Anthropocene Fiction,”
coauthored with Andrei Ionescu and Ruben Fransoo, Language and Literature
28, no. 3 (2019): 221– 40, used by permission of SAGE Publications, all rights
reserved. I am grateful to these journals and my coauthors for granting
me permission to reuse and adapt these articles.
The panels from Richard McGuire’s Here in chapter 1 were originally
published in Raw 2, no. 1, 1989, copyright © 1989 Richard McGuire, used by
permission of the Wylie Agency (UK).
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Narrating the Mesh
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