CAPAS RESEARCH PROJECT - ANA HONNACKER (Post-)Apocalyptic Thinking as Cultural Criticism
The project aims at exploring the potential of (post-)apocalyptic thinking as part of cultural criticism. I suggest that problematizing interpretational schemes is essential for responding to the Anthropocene as meta-crisis, namely a crisis of a certain way of life. The virtual non-response to the diverse ecological crises can be understood as socially organized self-defence: Eco-denialism stabilizes the (group) identity and allows for business-as-usual. It is profoundly connected to culturally dominant ideas of progress and a human control of nature which lead to what Günther Anders called “apocalyptic blindness”. Being unable to imagine the end of the world results in inertia and the persistence of ecological harmful practices.
In contrast to a narrative of mere catastrophe that is often employed in the environmental discourse, I propose to draw on the critical and utopian potential of the original Judaeo-Christian version and the hope that was expressed in it: that another (better) world will come. Imagining and anticipating a time after the end of the world opens up an experimental imaginary space that potentially disturbs and questions current cultural presumptions, self-images, and ultimately practices. The goal of the project is to elaborate a decidedly post-metaphysical, secularized version of apocalypse that may lead to a new anthropology and understanding of history that is more adequate to the Anthropocene.