98 New FormatioNs Stirring the geopolitical UnconScioUS: towardS a JameSonian ecocriticiSm Adrian Ivakhiv in the introduction to his celebrated Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Fredric Jameson called postmodernism what we have ‘when the modernization process is complete and nature is gone for good’. 1 Just a year earlier, journalist Bill mcKibben had written a book entitled The End of Nature, in which he lamented that with the appearance of the ‘ozone hole,’ evidence of an impending global extinction crisis, and especially the possibility of catastrophic global climate change caused by human activities, nature, at least as we used to know it, has ‘ended’. 2 while Jameson’s book has been among the most influential ever published in cultural studies, mcKibben’s became an environmental bestseller. But despite their declarations, nature, if by that we mean the ecological and biological fabric of life on this planet, has neither ended nor gone away: that fabric is still largely intact, even if increasingly modified and interlaced with human activities. in popular culture and in everyday life, however, nature often does seem to be somewhere outside the picture. mcKibben has more recently lamented the lack of good art portraying the ecological facts of our time. ‘one species, ours,’ he writes, ‘has by itself in the course of a couple of generations managed to powerfully raise the temperature of an entire planet, to knock its most basic systems out of kilter. But oddly, though we know about it, we don’t know about it. it hasn’t registered in our gut; it isn’t part of our culture. where are the books? the poems? the plays? the goddamn operas?’ 3 one could respond to this exhortatory challenge by naming the many artists who are addressing environmental issues in their work in one way or another: earth and land artists like andy goldsworthy and richard long; ecologically minded conceptualists and performance artists such as robert and Shana parke harrison, mary Beth edelson, and the late Joseph Beuys; the eco-restoration/reclamation art of alan Sonfist, mierle laderman Ukeles, and helen mayer harrison and newton harrison; the environmental films of independent filmmakers like James Benning, as well as popular fare such as March of the Penguins, Happy Feet, and the recent spate of global warming related documentaries; the nuclear and post-industrial landscape photography of richard misrach, peter goin, and edward Burtynsky; environmental themes in theatre, music, dance, and so on. 4 at the level of popular culture, however, mcKibben’s point is fair enough, at least insofar as ecological topics easily get lost in the din, and even when not - when they make a brief appearance in the arts news of the BBc or national public radio or even on the big screen, say, with the 2004 global warming blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow - they tend to be 1. Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, durham, nc, duke University press, 1991, pix. 2. Bill mcKibben, The End of Nature, new York, anchor/ doubleday, 1990. 3. Bill mcKibben, ‘imagine that: what the warming world needs now is art, sweet art,’ Grist Magazine, 21/04/05, http://www.grist. org/comments/ soapbox/2005/04/21/ mckibben-imagine 4. ‘the nature issue,’ ARTNews, June 2004; ‘art and the environment,’ Special Section, ArtReview 2 (august 2006); Steve Baker, The Postmodern Animal, london, reaktion, 2000; John grande, Balance: Art and Nature, revised edition, montreal, Black rose, 2003; Jeffrey Kastner, Land and Environmental Art, phaidon press, 1998; lucy r. lippard, Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society, new press, 1998; max andrews, land, art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook, london, rSa 2006; rebecca Solnit, As Eve Said to the Serpent: On Landscape, Gender, and Art, University of georgia press, 2003; alan Sonfist, Nature, the End of Art: Environmental Landscapes, rome, gli ori, 2004; Sue Spaid, Ecovention: Current Art to Transform Ecologies, contemporary arts center, 2002; Scott macdonald,