The Anthropocene and literature / edited by Tore Rye Andersen

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Andersen, Tore Rye, editor.

Series:

Cambridge critical concepts

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ecocriticism.

Ecology in literature.

Environmentalism in literature.

Human ecology in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2026

Summary:

"In recent decades, the Anthropocene has become a powerful concept for understanding climate change, extinction, and planetary crisis, and literature is one of its most vital arenas of reflection and imagination. Drawing together the work of both emerging and leading scholars from across the globe, this volume explores how stories, genres, and critical debates illuminate humanity’s profound impact on Earth. From Romantic precursors to contemporary climate fiction, from deep time to speculative futures, this volume traces how literature and literary studies grapple with questions of scale, ethics, and entanglement across global contexts. Combining historical depth with current theory, the book offers fresh insights into topics such as infrastructure, animal studies, colonialism, and extractivism, while engaging urgent questions: How have literature and literary studies anticipated and responded to humanity’s fraught relation with the planet? Can literature change our behavior and help us imagine new, more sustainable ways of living?"-- Provided by publisher

Contents:

Introduction : the anthropocene and literature / Tore Rye Andersen

The anthropocene : a literary career / Pieter Vermeulen

Ecocriticism and the anthropocene / Scott Slovic

Climate fiction : origins and recent developments / Caren Irr

Scale / Timothy Clark

Deep time / Noah Heringman

The anthropocene of the global south or deep-time history anthropocene / Senayon Olaoluwa

Empire and extractivism : on matter and form in Patrick Chamoiseau’s Slave Old Man and Helena María Viramontes’ Under the Feet of Jesus / Stacey Balkan

White flight of the anthropos : gentrification of the anthropocene imaginary / Henry Ivry

Multispecies stories / Keita Hatooka

Literature, extinction, and the anthropocene / Claire Colebrook

Post-goethean world literature, or curating the planetary archive in the anthropocene / Christian Moraru

The sea / Søren Frank

Desert / Rune Graulund

Planet-thinking-feeling : sensuous earth-reeling in Samantha Harvey’s Orbital / Nicole M. Merola

Infrastructure / Reuben Martens

Speculative fiction / Rebecca Ballard

The understory : climate realisms and the long fight in Creation Lake / Ben De Bruyn

Anthropocene media theories / Jørgen Bruhn

Utopia and the anthropocene / Andrew Milner

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Online resource; title from PDF title page (Cambridge Core, viewed July 7, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version: Anthropocene and literature

ISBN:

9781009537780

1009537784

OCLC:

1573019693

Publisher Number:

CIPO000397816

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license