Eighteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

This paper takes a look at the way that human—particularly Western—conceptions of progress have affected the biologic and geological structuring of time, ultimately arguing for why a concept of “non-human time” is useful to literary studies. By focusing on the impacts of human social and political temporal structures on Earth’s ecology, I expose the problems with the capitalist ideology of progress, building off of Walter Benjamin’s arguments in “Theses on the Philosophy of History.” I begin my argument by investigating the standard human understanding of time as it is described by literary theorists like Elizabeth Grosz and Wai Chee Dimock. Then, using the theoretical foundations of non-human and material agency, I argue against the passive view of temporality and build out Dipesh Chakrabarty’s claim that the human species has acted as a geologic force on the Earth. I theorize that humanity, by privileging capitalist development and rapid rates of industrialization and profit-driven agriculture, has increased the rate of change for the planet as a whole, culminating in the climate crisis that exists today. My concept of “non-human time”—or time that manifests slowly, remains unmeasured, and disrupts human activity—challenges the dominant narrative of progress and offers an ideological alternative that would be productive for literary and cultural critics to pursue.