The Literature of Environmental Disaster

The Anthropocene names both the advent of human mastery over nature and the serial catastrophes that now challenge our "risk society", from climate change and global plagues to nuclear fallout, flooding, the sixth extinction, and environmental racism. Literary testimonies can help us rethink the human relationship to the environment by shedding a unique light on how distinct cultures live this rapport. By studying novels, films, plays, and essays from France, Russia, Nigeria, India, Japan, and the US, we will see how some of the world's most exposed populations have navigated the lethal cross-currents of modernity.