Fog and Filthy Air

Abstract

Abstract: Building on the recent work of Dipesh Chakrabarty, this essay thinks about how Macbeth 's Witches introduce into the play an imagination that is both global and planetary. But whereas the global is a largely anthropocentric concept, mapping the world in terms of fixed states and cities such as Aleppo, the planetary is a frame that embeds the human within churning assemblages with nonhuman entities and elements. The "fog and filthy air" of Macbeth , and of my location in contemporary New Delhi, demand to be seen in this way.