Anthropocene Fictions

The Novel in a Time of Climate Change

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism
Cover of the book Anthropocene Fictions by Adam Trexler, University of Virginia Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Adam Trexler ISBN: 9780813936932
Publisher: University of Virginia Press Publication: April 20, 2015
Imprint: University of Virginia Press Language: English
Author: Adam Trexler
ISBN: 9780813936932
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Publication: April 20, 2015
Imprint: University of Virginia Press
Language: English

Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have transformed the Earth’s atmosphere, committing our planet to more extreme weather, rising sea levels, melting polar ice caps, and mass extinction. This period of observable human impact on the Earth’s ecosystems has been called the Anthropocene Age. The anthropogenic climate change that has impacted the Earth has also affected our literature, but criticism of the contemporary novel has not adequately recognized the literary response to this level of environmental crisis. Ecocriticism’s theories of place and planet, meanwhile, are troubled by a climate that is neither natural nor under human control. Anthropocene Fictions is the first systematic examination of the hundreds of novels that have been written about anthropogenic climate change.

Drawing on climatology, the sociology and philosophy of science, geography, and environmental economics, Adam Trexler argues that the novel has become an essential tool to construct meaning in an age of climate change. The novel expands the reach of climate science beyond the laboratory or model, turning abstract predictions into subjectively tangible experiences of place, identity, and culture. Political and economic organizations are also being transformed by their struggle for sustainability. In turn, the novel has been forced to adapt to new boundaries between truth and fabrication, nature and economies, and individual choice and larger systems of natural phenomena. Anthropocene Fictions argues that new modes of inhabiting climate are of the utmost critical and political importance, when unprecedented scientific consensus has failed to lead to action.

Under the Sign of Nature: Explorations in Ecocriticism

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have transformed the Earth’s atmosphere, committing our planet to more extreme weather, rising sea levels, melting polar ice caps, and mass extinction. This period of observable human impact on the Earth’s ecosystems has been called the Anthropocene Age. The anthropogenic climate change that has impacted the Earth has also affected our literature, but criticism of the contemporary novel has not adequately recognized the literary response to this level of environmental crisis. Ecocriticism’s theories of place and planet, meanwhile, are troubled by a climate that is neither natural nor under human control. Anthropocene Fictions is the first systematic examination of the hundreds of novels that have been written about anthropogenic climate change.

Drawing on climatology, the sociology and philosophy of science, geography, and environmental economics, Adam Trexler argues that the novel has become an essential tool to construct meaning in an age of climate change. The novel expands the reach of climate science beyond the laboratory or model, turning abstract predictions into subjectively tangible experiences of place, identity, and culture. Political and economic organizations are also being transformed by their struggle for sustainability. In turn, the novel has been forced to adapt to new boundaries between truth and fabrication, nature and economies, and individual choice and larger systems of natural phenomena. Anthropocene Fictions argues that new modes of inhabiting climate are of the utmost critical and political importance, when unprecedented scientific consensus has failed to lead to action.

Under the Sign of Nature: Explorations in Ecocriticism

More books from University of Virginia Press

Cover of the book Novel Ventures by Adam Trexler
Cover of the book A Voyage to Virginia in 1609 by Adam Trexler
Cover of the book Hometown Religion by Adam Trexler
Cover of the book Characters of Blood by Adam Trexler
Cover of the book Merely Judgment by Adam Trexler
Cover of the book Amelioration and Empire by Adam Trexler
Cover of the book Philosophy as Poetry by Adam Trexler
Cover of the book Eric Williams and the Anticolonial Tradition by Adam Trexler
Cover of the book The New Death by Adam Trexler
Cover of the book Gun Culture in Early Modern England by Adam Trexler
Cover of the book Independence without Freedom by Adam Trexler
Cover of the book Vernon Lee by Adam Trexler
Cover of the book Reading Trauma Narratives by Adam Trexler
Cover of the book Face Value by Adam Trexler
Cover of the book Slavery and War in the Americas by Adam Trexler
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy