In contrast to the traditional genre of eco-apocalyptic fiction, Sarah Moss’ debut novel, Cold Earth (2009), does not culminate in a collective catastrophe. It instead employs archaeology, environmental apocalypse, viruses and ghosts to disclose the transformative power of the archive. This article surveys the ways through which the archaeological motif, environmental apocalypse, elegiac tones and disarrayed temporality can function as archiving vehicles, preserving past memory and opening up to the future. And yet, in doing this, both landscape and writing melancholically internalize losses, so as to become themselves archives, while eventually edging towards post-melancholic attachments.
Archives of Environmental Apocalypse in Sarah Moss’s Cold Earth: Archaeology, Viruses and Melancholia
Monaco, Angelo
2022-01-01
Abstract
In contrast to the traditional genre of eco-apocalyptic fiction, Sarah Moss’ debut novel, Cold Earth (2009), does not culminate in a collective catastrophe. It instead employs archaeology, environmental apocalypse, viruses and ghosts to disclose the transformative power of the archive. This article surveys the ways through which the archaeological motif, environmental apocalypse, elegiac tones and disarrayed temporality can function as archiving vehicles, preserving past memory and opening up to the future. And yet, in doing this, both landscape and writing melancholically internalize losses, so as to become themselves archives, while eventually edging towards post-melancholic attachments.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
