Imagining Ecocatastrophe
Reading Literary and Cultural Texts in the Global Context
1st Edition
Published on 1. August 2025
Book
Hardback
290 pages
978-1-032-72419-5 (ISBN)
Description
This volume examines scholarly perspectives on eco-imaginaries, focusing in particular on how eco-catastrophes have been represented in literature and different visual forms, including film, television and cartoons, among other cultural media. It draws on literary genres such as science fiction, climate fiction, speculative fiction, petrofiction, post-apocalyptic narratives and nuclear fiction to examine the role that literature plays in the dissemination of information about environmental crisis in the Anthropocene and in preparing mankind for a better and sustainable future. Deeply embedded in theoretical conceptualisations, the essays in this volume address issues of natural disasters, deforestation, nuclear disasters and pandemics, among others, which constitute the core subjects of environmental humanities.
A seminal study on the literary and cultural representations of ecodisaster in the global context, and with contributions from across the world, this book, truly interdisciplinary in nature, will be an invaluable read for students, academicians and researchers in literature, film studies, climate change studies, disaster studies, gender studies and cultural studies.
A seminal study on the literary and cultural representations of ecodisaster in the global context, and with contributions from across the world, this book, truly interdisciplinary in nature, will be an invaluable read for students, academicians and researchers in literature, film studies, climate change studies, disaster studies, gender studies and cultural studies.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Postgraduate and Undergraduate Core
Illustrations
1 s/w Abbildung, 1 s/w Zeichnung
1 Line drawings, black and white; 1 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
628 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-032-72419-5 (9781032724195)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Scott Slovic | Joyjit Ghosh | Samit Kumar Maiti
Imagining Ecocatastrophe
Reading Literary and Cultural Texts in the Global Context
E-Book
08/2025
CRC Press
€60.49
Available for download
Scott Slovic | Joyjit Ghosh | Samit Kumar Maiti
Imagining Ecocatastrophe
Reading Literary and Cultural Texts in the Global Context
E-Book
08/2025
CRC Press
€60.49
Available for download
Persons
Scott Slovic is a senior scientist at the Oregon Research Institute and a distinguished professor of environmental humanities emeritus at the University of Idaho, USA.
Joyjit Ghosh is Professor in the Department of English Literature, Language and Cultural Studies, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, West Bengal, India.
Samit Kumar Maiti is Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Seva Bharati Mahavidyalaya, Kapgari, Jhargram, West Bengal, India.
Joyjit Ghosh is Professor in the Department of English Literature, Language and Cultural Studies, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, West Bengal, India.
Samit Kumar Maiti is Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Seva Bharati Mahavidyalaya, Kapgari, Jhargram, West Bengal, India.
Content
List of Contributors viii
Acknowledgements xv
Introduction 1
PART I
Anthropocene, Ecocatastrophe and Apocalypse 23
1 "We Have So Little Time Left": Portrayal of Environmental Catastrophe in Selected Poems from Reckoning 25
JOYJIT GHOSH
2 Unmasking the Risks of Climate Change in Liz Jensen's The Rapture 38
MAHINUR GOZDE KASURKA
3 Maja Lunde's The End of the Ocean: A Narrative of Climate Change and Environmental Crisis 53
SAUMYA PRIYA
4 Subverting Anthropocentrism: A Critical Study of J. G. Ballard's The Wind from Nowhere 64
BAPIN MALLICK AND NIKHILESH DHAR
5 Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for The Future: A Tale of Transcending Climate "Catastrophism" 72
TUSHAR KANTI KARMAKAR
PART II
Vulnerability, Precarity and Resilience 85
6 "Climate Plague", Precarious Lives and Resilience in a Post-Apocalyptic World: Vignettes of Vulnerability in
Sequoia Nagamatsu's How High We Go in the Dark 87
SK TARIK ALI
7 Precarious Selves, (Dis)abled Bodies and Post-Apocalyptic Narratives 101
ELWIN SUSAN JOHN
8 Ecocatastrophe in the Literary Imagination: Confronting the Anthropocene through Narratives of Ecoprecarity from North-East India 111
PADDAJA ROY
PART III
Resource Extraction, Eco-Injustice and Resistance 123
9 Eco-Anxiety, Trauma and Resilience of the Dongria Kond Tribe of India: Locating the Literary and Cultural Responses of the Niyamgiri Movement in the Global Scenario 125
MIR AHAMMAD ALI
10 "We Should Have Known Our Land Would Soon Be Dead": Resource Curse, Petro-Capital Extractivism and Survival Environmentalism in Imbolo Mbue's How Beautiful We Were 140
SHANKHA SHUBHRA MANDAL
PART IV
Disaster(s) and Dystopian Imaginaries 153
11 The Literary Dimensions of Pagan Spirituality in Fictionalising the Nuclear Tierratraumatic Experience 155
INNA SUKHENKO
12 Some Things Are More Equal Than Others: Or, How to Read On the Beach 170
ANNA FRIEDA KUHN
13 Gender, Famine and Masculinities: An Ecofeminist Insight into the Irish Great Hunger 178
ASMAE OURKIYA
14 The Ecology of Reading Lithuanian Dystopia: The Cases of Dorandobongas by Jurgis Volandas and Eko by Valdas Papievis 192
INDRE ZAKEVICIENE
PART V
Climate Change and Environmental Disaster in Cinema 209
15 Don't Look Up: Political Satire Crashes into the Contemporary Disaster Film 211
GEORGIOS DIMOGLOU
16 The City ?hat (Never) Dies: Film Noir Imagines the Urban Disorder, Disease and Disaster 221
DIMITRIS PAPACHARALAMPOUS
17 "Toward an Otherwise": Decolonising Epistemology and Ecology in The Last Wave 232
WILL UNDERLAND AND MATTHEW SPENCER
18 Scorched Earth and Precarious Existence: Representation of the Anthropocene in Bollywood Films Kadvi Hawa and Jal 242
AMIT MANDAL
PART VI
Climate Change and Critical Thinking in Other Cultural Media 255
19 From One World to Another: Immersion in Digital Games and its Relevance for Climate Change 257
LAURA AKERS
20 Geopolitics of Climate Change Cartoons: Exploring Everyday Resistance through Visual Discourse 271
SHIFANA P. A. AND ASHA SUSAN JACOB
Index 284
Acknowledgements xv
Introduction 1
PART I
Anthropocene, Ecocatastrophe and Apocalypse 23
1 "We Have So Little Time Left": Portrayal of Environmental Catastrophe in Selected Poems from Reckoning 25
JOYJIT GHOSH
2 Unmasking the Risks of Climate Change in Liz Jensen's The Rapture 38
MAHINUR GOZDE KASURKA
3 Maja Lunde's The End of the Ocean: A Narrative of Climate Change and Environmental Crisis 53
SAUMYA PRIYA
4 Subverting Anthropocentrism: A Critical Study of J. G. Ballard's The Wind from Nowhere 64
BAPIN MALLICK AND NIKHILESH DHAR
5 Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for The Future: A Tale of Transcending Climate "Catastrophism" 72
TUSHAR KANTI KARMAKAR
PART II
Vulnerability, Precarity and Resilience 85
6 "Climate Plague", Precarious Lives and Resilience in a Post-Apocalyptic World: Vignettes of Vulnerability in
Sequoia Nagamatsu's How High We Go in the Dark 87
SK TARIK ALI
7 Precarious Selves, (Dis)abled Bodies and Post-Apocalyptic Narratives 101
ELWIN SUSAN JOHN
8 Ecocatastrophe in the Literary Imagination: Confronting the Anthropocene through Narratives of Ecoprecarity from North-East India 111
PADDAJA ROY
PART III
Resource Extraction, Eco-Injustice and Resistance 123
9 Eco-Anxiety, Trauma and Resilience of the Dongria Kond Tribe of India: Locating the Literary and Cultural Responses of the Niyamgiri Movement in the Global Scenario 125
MIR AHAMMAD ALI
10 "We Should Have Known Our Land Would Soon Be Dead": Resource Curse, Petro-Capital Extractivism and Survival Environmentalism in Imbolo Mbue's How Beautiful We Were 140
SHANKHA SHUBHRA MANDAL
PART IV
Disaster(s) and Dystopian Imaginaries 153
11 The Literary Dimensions of Pagan Spirituality in Fictionalising the Nuclear Tierratraumatic Experience 155
INNA SUKHENKO
12 Some Things Are More Equal Than Others: Or, How to Read On the Beach 170
ANNA FRIEDA KUHN
13 Gender, Famine and Masculinities: An Ecofeminist Insight into the Irish Great Hunger 178
ASMAE OURKIYA
14 The Ecology of Reading Lithuanian Dystopia: The Cases of Dorandobongas by Jurgis Volandas and Eko by Valdas Papievis 192
INDRE ZAKEVICIENE
PART V
Climate Change and Environmental Disaster in Cinema 209
15 Don't Look Up: Political Satire Crashes into the Contemporary Disaster Film 211
GEORGIOS DIMOGLOU
16 The City ?hat (Never) Dies: Film Noir Imagines the Urban Disorder, Disease and Disaster 221
DIMITRIS PAPACHARALAMPOUS
17 "Toward an Otherwise": Decolonising Epistemology and Ecology in The Last Wave 232
WILL UNDERLAND AND MATTHEW SPENCER
18 Scorched Earth and Precarious Existence: Representation of the Anthropocene in Bollywood Films Kadvi Hawa and Jal 242
AMIT MANDAL
PART VI
Climate Change and Critical Thinking in Other Cultural Media 255
19 From One World to Another: Immersion in Digital Games and its Relevance for Climate Change 257
LAURA AKERS
20 Geopolitics of Climate Change Cartoons: Exploring Everyday Resistance through Visual Discourse 271
SHIFANA P. A. AND ASHA SUSAN JACOB
Index 284