Reflections on the Anthropocene Dossier

This introduction to the “Anthropocene Fictions” special issue of MFS discusses the need to theorize and expand what I call the “Anthropocene Dossier.” In addition to summarizing the essays of this issue, I explore Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer’s first article about the Anthropocene, the global scenarios of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and the concept of planetary boundaries as developed by scientists working at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. I juxtapose these scientific works with recent Anthropocene research undertaken by scholars working in the humanities, notably Amitav Ghosh and Dipesh Chakrabarty.