Anticipatory Environmental (Hi)Stories from Antiquity to the Anthropocene - (Environment and Society) by Christopher Schliephake & Evi Zemanek

About the Book

The volume examines forms and functions of fictional and factual anticipatory environmental (hi)stories from antiquity to the Anthropocene, offering a diachronic as well as cross-cultural perspective on how different authors and societies have imagined their respective future environments.

Book Synopsis

The volume examines forms and functions of fictional and factual anticipatory environmental (hi)stories from antiquity to the Anthropocene, offering a diachronic as well as cross-cultural perspective on how different authors and societies have imagined their respective future environments.

Review Quotes

"Edited by leading environmental scholars Schliephake and Zemanek, this volume explores in an impressive range of contributions from various disciplines the manifold ways in which environmental futures were envisioned across periods and cultures from antiquity to the present. The collection moves beyond the established genres of pastoral and apocalyptic futures, opening up fascinating new insights into a history of ecological thought as an intertwined history of environmental memory and anticipatory imagination. Highly recommended."

"This book adds a vital new dimension to environmental humanities scholarship. Using a wide range of case studies--from the Mayan Empire to the ancient Mediterranean, woolly mammoths in Siberia to bison in the modern United States--that span chronological and disciplinary boundaries, Anticipatory Environmental (Hi)Stories tackles one of the great challenges of our time: how to imagine the future of humanity in response to climate change. Essential reading for anyone wishing to better understand how conceptions of time, place, community, nature, and technology will shape our futures in the twenty-first century."

"This is a rich and thought-provoking collection of essays. It sheds new light on the long history of thinking about environmental futures in a huge range of different periods and contexts. In the process, it opens up some promising future pathways for the environmental humanities."

About the Author

Christopher Schliephake is senior lecturer in ancient history at the University of Augsburg.

Evi Zemanek is full professor of comparative media studies at the Institute for Media and Cultural Studies, University of Freiburg.