Literature for a Changing Planet

by Martin Puchner

Why we must learn to tell new stories about our relationship with the earth if we are to avoid climate catastrophe

Reading literature in a time of climate emergency can sometimes feel a bit like fiddling while Rome burns. Yet, at this turning point for the planet, scientists, policymakers, and activists have woken up to the power of stories in the fight against global warming. In Literature for a Changing Planet , Martin Puchner ranges across four thousand years of world literature to draw vital lessons about how we put ourselves on the path of climate change―and how we might change paths before it’s too late.

From the Epic of Gilgamesh and the West African Epic of Sunjata to the Communist Manifesto , Puchner reveals world literature in a new light―as an archive of environmental exploitation and a product of a way of life responsible for climate change. Literature depends on millennia of intensive agriculture, urbanization, and resource extraction, from the clay of ancient tablets to the silicon of e-readers. Yet literature also offers powerful ways to change attitudes toward the environment. Puchner uncovers the ecological thinking behind the idea of world literature since the early nineteenth century, proposes a new way of reading in a warming world, shows how literature can help us recognize our shared humanity, and discusses the possible futures of storytelling.

If we are to avoid environmental disaster, we must learn to tell the story of humans as a species responsible for global warming. Filled with important insights about the fundamental relationship between storytelling and the environment, Literature for a Changing Planet is a clarion call for readers and writers who care about the fate of life on the planet.

160 pages, Hardcover

Published February 8, 2022

About the author

Martin Puchner is a literary critic and philosopher. He studied at Konstanz University, the University of Bologna, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, before receiving his Ph.D. at Harvard University. Until 2009 he held the H. Gordon Garbedian Chair at Columbia University, where he also served as co-chair of the Theater Ph.D. program. He now holds the Byron and Anita Wien Chair of Drama and of English and Comparative Literature at Harvard University. He is the founding director of the Mellon School of Theater and Performance Research at Harvard University.

Reviews

[Karel Baloun · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very short, thin volume, with a very tight and clear message. Puchner is obviously very smart, and i care about the environment. As the introduction didn’t exactly grab me, I kind of wondered who the target audience was… But don’t give up on it… The target audience was anybody who likes stories, and it did speak to me.

As a German-born, and globally educated Harvard PhD, who teaches in the PhD drama program as well as English literature, Puchner was perfectly positioned to lead Norton anthologies of world literature for over 15 years now.

“climate change cannot be solved, or even be understood, as long as you remain tethered to the nation-state” p72
This after a discussion of Marx and Engels promoting globalization of industry to strengthen workers and their productivity and importance.

Filled in gaps in my classic literature education, including the epic of Gilgamesh from Mesopotamia, and the Popol Vuh of the Maya. And during the reading of this short book, I spent at least as much time in online encyclopedias, because it repeatedly points to fascinating contexts, many of which were still new to me.

Globalization and resource extraction. Separation of nature. Sedentary consumption, including of literature. Colonialism and patronage as means for creating a literate surplus, and the means to travel and compare world literatures.

“ the ability to coordinate our minds through language was what first jumpstarted the accelerated cultural development that status apart from the rest of life on earth. Now the same communicative tools must come to our aid in acts of collective storytelling.… the climate crisis, brings into focus, the significance of literature. The importance of literature, for changing our planet coincides faith, fully with the decline of the humanities.… We must find new ways to win over students and parents… the climate crisis is a chance for us to get our act together. By trying to help save the planet, the humanities might manage to save themselves.” P109-110

[eva mcfarlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

really liked the first half of this book then i kind of lost interest - i feel like this could have been a journal article rather than a full book tbh

my biggest note is that i do wish at some points that the author had taken less of a "humans = resource extraction and environmental destruction" perspective and looked more at stories that indigenous communities tell about the earth / other ways of thinking about natural resources. i feel like he sort of started to do this by bringing up settler colonialism but then it...didn't really go anywhere?

overall though i think liked this! i appreciate any environmental writing that
a) emphasizes the importance of the humanities
b) attempts to inspire activism rather than just being climate nihilism

[Johan D'Haenen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ik heb dit werk gelezen tegen de achtergrond van mijn literaire wereldtournee en ja, ik vond het interessant en instructief.
Martin Puchner behandelt het concept "wereldliteratuur", laat ons zeggen literatuur als reflectie van levensstijlen of culturen, het product van die culturen, maar tegelijkertijd ook als beïnvloeding van die culturen in die zin dat lectuur het gedrag en de levensvisie van de lezer vorm geeft. En in die zin is literatuur de weerspiegeling door de eeuwen heen van menselijke activiteit die onvermijdelijk geleid heeft tot de huidige problematieken van klimaatverandering, uitputting van grondstoffen, gebrek aan duurzaamheid, ...
Wereldliteratuur en nationalisme gaan niet samen, zijn onverenigbaar met elkaar... Om dieper op deze krasse uitspraak te kunnen ingaan, verwijst Martin Puchner naar het werk van David Dambrosch ("What is World Literature" en "How to read world literature").
Uiteindelijk pleit Martin Puchner voor het opstellen, gebruiken en onderwijzen van een nieuwe bloemlezing van de wereldliteratuur, een canon die ons bewustzijn over wat wij mensen onze habitat aangedaan hebben, niet lokaal of nationaal, maar globaal.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book made me think, which is always good! “When reading a work of literature, never forget that you are dealing with a medium that is complicit with, and therefore most likely defensive of, settled life and the resource extraction required to sustain it.” The author expresses concern that the decline in humanities is coinciding with the need for diverse thought and understanding as our environment changes at a faster rate. He implores readers to ensure that more diverse voices are represented (oral and written) and suggests global curation and collective storytelling as potential solutions to expand the dialogue.

[Anne Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found the title very intriguing! This book was recommended to me by a Gilgamesh scholar when I asked if the creators of Gilgamesh knew they were turning the Middle East into a desert with overfarming. His reply was that a new direction for Gilgamesh scholarship was to see if the text has any messages for us today as we deal with climate change. This text addresses that for Gilgamesh and other examples of world literature.

The first chapter is depressing, but it’s an important element to set up the actual work of the book. Please push through it. I love the bridges between science and the humanities; more are needed. This book is an interesting one. Please read and share.

[Ebookwormy1]

You will quickly get the idea that Lee Oser did NOT like this publication. Based on Oser's insights, I would have to agree that literature lovers would find little enrichment and much offense in Puchner's advocacy for communist conformance to the environmental project.
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/re...

[Leif · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fine enough. Gilgamesh as an environmental parable, yes. Read all of literature against the grain of sedentary extractivism, yes, yes. Nice enough ideas but not really that motivational - and, really, strangely not very clear on what the whole goal of the whole attempt might be. Cultural relevance? Societal value? Maybe those are boorish questions, but there we have it.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A treatise on understanding and applying ecocriticism, but presented in a way that the author comes across as a neophyte in the field of ecocriticism. The chapters on the politics of anthologizing world literature were cool, anyway.

[Travis Timmons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ultimately a good book. I especially found the chapters on reading ancient epics in light of ecocrit. and climate change and the book’s final chapter worth the admission price as a read. However, this seems like another book that would be equally as effective as a longform essay/article.