Abstract
Contemporary cosmic imagination takes an apocalyptic turn away from the harmonious cosmic reverie described by Bachelard, instead envisioning the imperceptible toxification and elemental dissolution of the world. In parallel, phenomenology’s confrontation with the annihilation of the world leads it to recognize a moment of death that haunts every lived experience as its immemorial past. Tracing the moment of the world’s withdrawal through Merleau-Ponty, Cézanne, Deleuze, Levinas, and Sallis, we see that this immemorial past is associated with a prehuman level of sensation that opens onto the silent materiality of the elements. Investigating sensation at the limits of perception, elements at the limit of the world, and art at the limits of representation allows us to reconfigure Bachelard’s cosmic imagination in the wake of the apocalyptic turn. This reveals that apocalyptic imagination is not merely a contemporary response to our technological and environmental context but rather an intensification of nature’s own fundamental duplicity.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
An earlier version of this essay was presented at Fantasia—Imaginatio—Einbildungskraft, a conference hosted by The Center of Phenomenological Research, Charles University, Prague, 11/1/2012.
- 2.
On the toxicity of the contemporary imagination, see Buell (1998).
- 3.
The official report of this group is available as Human Interference Task Force (1984).
- 4.
References
Abram, D. (1996). The spell of the sensuous. New York: Vintage.
Al-Saji, A. (2008). ‘A past which has never been present’: Bergsonian dimensions in Merleau-Ponty’s theory of the prepersonal. Research in Phenomenology, 38(1), 41–71.
Bachelard, G. (1969). The poetics of reverie: Childhood, language, and the cosmos (trans: D. Russell). Boston: Beacon Press.
Boetzkes, A. (2010). The ethics of Earth art. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Buell, L. (1998). Toxic discourse. Critical Inquiry, 24(3), 639–665.
Deleuze, G. (2002). Francis Bacon: Logique de la sensation. Paris: Seuil.
Deleuze, G. (2003). Francis Bacon: The logic of sensation (trans: D. Smith). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Doran, M. (Ed.). (2001). Conversations with Cézanne. (trans: J. Cochran). Berkeley: University of California Press.
EPA. (2005). Public health and environmental radiation protection standards for Yucca Mountain, Nevada; Proposed Rule. Federal Register 70, No. 161. http://www.epa.gov/radiation/docs/yucca/70fr49013.pdf. Accessed 24 Nov 2012.
Gasquet, J. (1926). Cézanne. Paris: Bernheim-Jeune.
Gillette, N., et al. (2011). Ongoing climate change following a complete cessation of carbon dioxide emissions. Nature Geoscience, 4, 83–87.
Herr, L. (1894). “Hegel.” La grande encyclopédie, v. 19 (pp. 997–1003). Paris: Société anonyme de la grand encyclopédie.
Human Interference Task Force. (1984). Reducing the likelihood of future human activities that could affect geologic high-level waste repositories. US Department of Energy. http://www.osti.gov/bridge/product.biblio.jsp?osti_id=6799619. Accessed 24 Nov 2012.
Husserl, E. (1982). Ideas I (trans: F. Kersten). The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
Levinas, E. (1947). De l’existence á l’existant. Paris: Fontaine.
Levinas, E. (2001). Existence and existents (trans: A. Lingis). Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1942). La structure du comportement. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1945). Phénoménologie de la perception. Paris: Gallimard.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1963). The structure of behavior (trans: A. Fisher). Boston: Beacon Press.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1964). Le visible et l’invisible. Paris: Gallimard.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1968a). Résumés de cours, Collège de France 1952–1960. Paris: Gallimard.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1968b). The Visible and the Invisible (trans: A. Lingis). Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1988). In Praise of Philosophy and Other Essays (trans: J. Wild, J. Edie, & J. O’Neill). Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1995). La Nature, notes, cours du Collège de France. Paris: Seuil.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1996). Sens et non-sens. Paris: Gallimard.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (2003). Nature: Course notes from the Collège de France (trans: R. Vallier). Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (2007). The Merleau-Ponty Reader. In Ted Toadvine & Leonard Lawlor (Eds.). Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (2012). Phenomenology of Perception (trans: D. Landes). London: Routledge.
Sallis, J. (1998). Levinas and the elemental. Research in Phenomenology, 28(1), 152–159.
Sallis, J. (2000). Force of imagination: The sense of the elemental. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Solomon, S., et al. (2009). Irreversible climate change due to carbon dioxide emissions. Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences, 106(6), 1704–1709.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Toadvine, T. (2014). Apocalyptic Imagination and the Silence of the Elements. In: Vakoch, D., Castrillón, F. (eds) Ecopsychology, Phenomenology, and the Environment. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9619-9_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9619-9_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-9618-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-9619-9
eBook Packages: Behavioral ScienceBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)