Table Of ContentImagining Apocalyptic Politics
in the Anthropocene
Bringing together scholars from English literature, geography, politics, the
arts, environmental humanities and sociology, Imagining Apocalyptic Poli-
tics in the Anthropocene contributes to the emerging debate between bodies
of thought frst incepted by scholars such as Mouffe, Whyte, Kaplan, Hunt,
Swyngedouw and Malm about how apocalyptic events, narratives and im-
aginaries interact with societal and individual agency historically and in the
current political moment. Exploring their own empirical and p hilosophical
contexts, the authors examine the forms of political acting found in apoca-
lyptic imaginaries and refect on what this means for contemporary society.
By framing their arguments around either pre- apocalyptic, peri- apocalyptic
or post-apocalyptic narratives and events, a timeline emerges throughout the
volume which shows the different opportunities for political agency the an-
thropocenic subject can enact at the various stages of apocalyptic moments.
Featuring a number of creative interventions exclusively produced for the
work from artists and fction writers who engage with the themes of apoc-
alypse, decline, catastrophe and disaster, this innovative book will be of
great interest to students and scholars of the politics of climate change, the
environmental humanities, literary criticism and eco-criticism.
Earl T. Harper is an Independent Scholar.
Doug Specht is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Media and Communica-
tion at the University of Westminster, UK.
Routledge Environmental Humanities
Series editors: Scott Slovic (University of Idaho, USA), Joni Adamson
(Arizona State University, USA) and Yuki Masami (Aoyama Gakuin
University, Japan)
Editorial Board
Christina Alt, St Andrews University, UK
Alison Bashford, University of New South Wales, Australia
Peter Coates, University of Bristol, UK
Thom van Dooren, University of New South Wales, Australia
Georgina Endfeld, Liverpool, UK
Jodi Frawley, University of Sydney, Australia
Andrea Gaynor, The University of Western Australia, Australia
Christina Gerhardt, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, USA
Tom Lynch, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA
Iain McCalman, Australian Catholic University, Australia
Jennifer Newell, Australian Museum, Sydney, Australia
Simon Pooley, Imperial College London, UK
Sandra Swart, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Ann Waltner, University of Minnesota, US
Jessica Weir, University of Western Sydney, Australia
The Routledge Environmental Humanities series is an original and inspiring
venture recognising that today’s world agricultural and water crises, ocean
pollution and resource depletion, global warming from greenhouse gases,
urban sprawl, overpopulation, food insecurity and environmental justice
are all crises of culture.
The reality of understanding and fnding adaptive solutions to our pres-
ent and future environmental challenges has shifted the epicenter of en-
vironmental studies away from an exclusively scientifc and technological
framework to one that depends on the human-focused disciplines and ideas
of the humanities and allied social sciences.
We thus welcome book proposals from all humanities and social sciences
disciplines for an inclusive and interdisciplinary series. We favour man-
uscripts aimed at an international readership and written in a lively and
accessible style. The readership comprises scholars and students from the
humanities and social sciences and thoughtful readers concerned about the
human dimensions of environmental change.
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Environmental-Humanities/book-series/REH
Imagining Apocalyptic Politics
in the Anthropocene
Edited by
Earl T. Harper and
Doug Specht
First published 2022
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 selection and editorial matter, Earl T. Harper and Doug
Specht; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Earl T. Harper and Doug Specht to be identifed as
the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their
individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifcation and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Harper, Earl T., editor. | Specht, Doug, editor.
Title: Imagining apocalyptic politics in the Anthropocene / edited
by Earl T. Harper and Doug Specht.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. |
Series: Routledge environmental humanities | Includes
bibliographical references and index. |
Identifers: LCCN 2021015613 (print) | LCCN 2021015614 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367653095 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367653125 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003128854 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Apocalypse in literature. | Apocalypse in mass
media. | Politics in literature. | Human ecology and the humanities. |
Fiction—History and criticism. | LCGFT: Literary criticism.
Classifcation: LCC PN56.A69 I43 2022 (print) |
LCC PN56.A69 (ebook) | DDC 809/.933582—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021015613
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021015614
ISBN: 978-0-367-65309-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-65312-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-12885-4 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003128854
Typeset in Times New Roman
by codeMantra
Contents
List of fgures vii
List of contributors ix
Introduction: … these unprecedented times 1
EARL T. HARPER AND DOUG SPECHT
1 They say “our house is on fre” – on the climate emergency and
(new) Earth politics 15
EDWARD H. HUIJBENS AND MARTIN GREN
2 Do not go gentle into that good night: contested narratives and
political subjectivities in the Anthropocene 34
CARLOS TORNEL AND AAPO LUNDEN
3 The end of worlding: indigenous cosmologies in the Anthropocene 58
MARIANA REYES-CARRANZA
4 Apocalypse repeated: the absence of the indigenous subject in
George Turner’s The Sea and Summer (1987) 76
CHARLOTTE LANCASTER
5 Apocalyptic literary geographies: The Tempest’s ‘brave new
world,’ Frankenstein’s ‘modern Prometheus’ and Cloud-Atlas’
‘furthest-seein’ eye’ 93
CHARLES TRAVIS
6 A world without bodies: geotrauma and the work of mourning
in Jorie Graham’s Fast 109
PHILIP JONES
vi Contents
7 Meaningful life at the end of times: ageism and the
duty-to-die in Logan’s Run 123
JAMES A. TYNER
8 The catastrophic drive 142
LUCAS POHL AND SAMO TOMŠIČ
9 The self(ie) in the Anthropocene 158
DOUG SPECHT AND CAT SNYDER
10 Urbicide in the Anthropocene: imagining Miami futures 173
STEPHANIE WAKEFIELD
11 Triggering the apparitions: spectres of chemical seascapes 189
MARÍA SOLEDAD CASTRO VARGAS AND
DIANA BARQUERO PÉREZ
12 Study for “Memories of the apocalypse” 201
CARL CHRISTIAN OLSSON
13 Variegated environmental apocalypses: post-politics, the
contestatory, and an eco-precariat manifesto for a radical
apocalyptics 213
TRISTAN STURM AND NICHOLAS FERRIS LUSTIG
Index 235
Figures
9.1 Networks of those tweeting about climate change. Selfes
were most likely to be posted by those in the outer circle,
with no ties to the rest of the network 166
11. 1 Altered photograph from Carlos Flores’s personal photo
archive, 2018 189
11. 2 Altered photograph from Diana Barquero’s personal
photo archive, 2018 190
11. 3 Altered photograph from Gonzalo Iglesias’s personal
photo archive, 2018 191
11. 4 Altered photograph from Oscar Jara’s personal photo
archive, 2018 192
11. 5 Altered photograph from Gonzalo Iglesias’s personal
photo archive, 2018 193
11. 6 Altered photograph from Soledad Castro’s personal photo
archive, 2018 193
11. 7 Altered photograph from Laia d’Armengol’s personal
photo archive, 2018 194
11. 8 Altered photograph from Daniela Mora’s personal photo
archive, 2018 195
11. 9 Altered photograph from Oscar Jara’s personal photo
archive, 2018 196
11. 10 Altered photograph from Soledad Castro’s personal photo
archive, 2018 197
11. 11 Altered photograph from Sara Granata’s personal photo
archive, 2018 197
11. 12 Altered photograph from Sara Granata’s personal
archive, 2018 198
Contributors
Martin Gren is an Associate Professor in Human Geography at the Linnaeus
University, Sweden. He has a long-standing interest in the discipline the-
ory of human geography, which has included works on the geographies
of Torsten Hägerstrand and Gunnar Olsson. Martin’s current focus is on
the (re)conceptualization of the Earth in the context of the Anthropo-
cene, the new climatic regime and the climate emergency. Martin is the
author and editor of several books, including Tourism and the Anthropo-
cene, the frst volume that exposes tourism to the Anthropocene, and GO:
On the Geographies of Gunnar Olsson.
Earl T. Harper is an Independent Scholar with no academic affliation. He
completed his PhD study on apocalyptic narratives of climate change
and their infuence on ecological gentrifcation in Western European cit-
ies at Bristol University in 2020. He is currently a Signaller with Network
Rail and can often be found on the footplate of steam locomotives on the
UK’s mainline railway network.
Edward H. Huijbens (b. 1976) is a geographer and graduate of Durham Uni-
versity, England. He chairs Wageningen University’s research group in
cultural geography. Edward works on spatial theory, issues of regional
development, landscape perceptions and the role of transport in tourism
and polar tourism. He has authored over 40 articles in several scholarly
journals and edited volumes, published three monographs in both Ice-
land and internationally, and has co-edited four books.
Philip Jones received his PhD in 2018 for his thesis “Rewriting the Atlantic
Archipelago: Modern British Poetry at the Coast.” He has written on
power, gender and watery embodiment in the work of Wendy Mulford,
Frances Presley and Carol Watts, as well as on representations of atomic
agency in the poetry of Robert Minhinnick. He has taught at Oxford
Brookes University and the University of Nottingham.
Charlotte Lancaster is a PhD Candidate in the Environmental Humanities at
Bath Spa University. Her research focuses on representations of fooding
and other “natural disasters” in Anglophone fction from the nineteenth
