The Anthropocene and Literature
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- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
- Publication date:
- 02 July 2026
- 02 July 2026
- ISBN:
- 9781009537780
- 9781009537773
- Dimensions:
- (229 x 152 mm)
- Weight & Pages:
- 0.443kg, 374 Pages
- Dimensions:
- Weight & Pages:
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Book description
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?
Contents
Contents
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Introduction
pp 1-28 - The Anthropocene and Literature
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