Folly: Narrating an Origin of the Anthropocene

Folly and its commentary are an effort to respond to the challenges Chakrabarty delineated in his Four Theses: that in their present states, neither the humanities nor the social sciences are able to effectively and fully depict and discuss the Anthropocene due to an inability to reconcile human social history with its species history. Or, put another way, to discuss humanity simultaneously as a cultural, social, and political object within its wider place in the natural world and its impacts on physical climate and biodiversity. Through the use of high fantasy fiction and inventive engagement with Anthropocene discourse, Folly attempts to articulate a symbolic and mythic retelling of the origins of the Anthropocene – utilising Fantasy’s inherently semiotic language to answer Chakrabarty’s challenge. While the thesis is unsuccessful in creating a singular history of the Anthropocene, and in diagnosing an objective, observable character of the epoch, Folly manages to articulate and argue for the place of subjectivity and individual expression within Anthropocene discourse.