Pfeifer Anthropocene Affordances

Scale, Narrative Form, and the Human in US-American Literature
1. Auflage - Neueauflage 2025
ISBN: 978-3-8394-3571-7
Verlag: transcript
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, Band 9, 282 Seiten, Format (B × H): 148 mm x 225 mm

Reihe: Literary Ecologies

1. Why did you choose this topic?

This project evolved from a deep curiosity about how literature responds to the environmental conditions of the 20th and 21st centuries. I wanted to better understand not only the themes contemporary US-American literature has addressed with growing frequency, but also the forms writers employ to narrate the scalar complexities that shape life in the Anthropocene.

2. What new perspectives does your book offer?

'Anthropocene Affordances' offers insight into how contemporary US-American writers address the shifting role of the human in the Anthropocene. It shows the variety of narrative forms – both old and new, in widely-read and lesser-known texts – that can be mobilized to better understand the complex scalar relations among humans, more-than-human life, and the planet.

3. What makes your topic relevant for current research debates?

The Anthropocene has attracted significant critical attention in the humanities over the past decade; and its usefulness as a lens for analyzing the current ecological condition has been much debated. 'Anthropocene Affordances' contributes to this debate by arguing that the Anthropocene remains a productive framework, especially for critically discussing the conflicted role of the human in the 21st century. Literature not only reflects but actively shapes our relationship with the planet.

4. Choose one person you would like to discuss your book with!

This is difficult and almost impossible to answer. Rather than discussing this book with a single person, I would wish for it to be discussed within a diverse group of scholars working on the Anthropocene – an interdisciplinary concept at its core – from a number of disciplines, that is, the humanities, but also the social and natural sciences.

5. Your book summary in one sentence:

This book invites reflection on the modes of thinking facilitated by the Anthropocene and the role of literature in making our new reality tangible.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Pfeifer, Lena

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ästhetik

Über Autor(innen)

Pfeifer, Lena
Lena Pfeifer received her doctorate in American Studies/Environmental Humanities at the University of Würzburg, where she has also been working as a research assistant since 2021. Her research focuses on environmental writing of the 20th and 21st centuries, discourses of the Anthropocene, climate fiction, new formalism, and nuclear cultures.