The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Anthropocene (Cambridge Companions to Literature)

The Anthropocene is a proposed geological epoch marking humanity's alteration of the Earth: its rock structure, environments, atmosphere. The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Anthropocene offers the most comprehensive survey yet of how literature can address the social, cultural, and philosophical questions posed by the Anthropocene. This volume addresses the old and new literary forms - from novels, plays, poetry, and essays to exciting and evolving genres such as 'cli-fi', experimental poetry, interspecies design, gaming, weird, ecotopian and petro-fiction, and 'new' nature writing. Studies range from the United States to India, from Palestine to Scotland, while addressing numerous global signifiers or consequences of the Anthropocene: catastrophe, extinction, 'fossil capital', warming, politics, ethics, interspecies relations, deep time, and Earth. This unique Companion offers a compelling account of how to read literature through the Anthropocene and of how literature might yet help us imagine a better world. 01.0_pp_i_ii_The_Cambridge_Companion_to_Literature_and_the_Anthropocene -1 02.0_pp_iii_iii_The_Cambridge_Companion_to_Literature_and_the_Anthropocene -1 03.0_pp_iv_iv_Copyright_page 1 04.0_pp_v_vi_Contents 5 05.0_pp_vii_vii_Figures 7 06.0_pp_viii_xi_Contributors 8 07.0_pp_xii_xii_Acknowledgements 12 08.0_pp_xiii_xx_Chronology 13 09.0_pp_1_34_Introduction 21 10.0_pp_35_68_Earth_Anthropocene_Literary_Form 55 10.1_pp_37_53_Earth 57 10.2_pp_54_68_DataAnecdote 74 11.0_pp_69_178_Anthropocene_Forms 89 11.1_pp_71_87_Poetry 91 11.2_pp_88_101_The_Novel 108 11.3_pp_102_116_Popular_Fiction 122 11.4_pp_117_131_The_Essay 137 11.5_pp_132_146_Theatre_and_Performance 152 11.6_pp_147_162_Interspecies_Design 167 11.7_pp_163_178_Digital_Games 183 12.0_pp_179_303_Anthropocene_Themes 199 12.1_pp_181_195_Catastrophe 201 12.2_pp_196_210_Animals 216 12.3_pp_211_225_Humans 231 12.4_pp_226_241_Fossil_Fuel 246 12.5_pp_242_257_Warming 262 12.6_pp_258_272_Ethics 278 12.7_pp_273_288_Interspecies 293 12.8_pp_289_303_Deep_Time_Visible 309 13.0_pp_304_309_Further_Reading 324 14.0_pp_310_313_Index 330 15.0_pp_314_322_Cambridge_Companions_To 334 This book is for readers interested in how literature tackles climate change, 'petro-culture', extinction, and the proposed 'human' epoch of the Anthropocene. Chapters discuss flooding, pollution, oil, humans, and animals, while revisiting old and new literary forms, including novels, poems, plays, and gaming.