Marshall Grossman Lecture Series: After Apocalyptic Ecologies: Medieval Literature at the End of the World
Marshall Grossman Lecture Series: After Apocalyptic Ecologies: Medieval Literature at the End of the World
Title: After Apocalyptic Ecologies: Medieval Literature at the End of the World
Part book talk, part meditation on apocalyptic wastelands, this lecture will explore how human artifacts—cultural, literary, and material—continue to haunt the stories we tell about our planet’s possible futures. We’ll begin with a glance at how premodern ideas about ecological apocalypse speak to our own age of climate precarity. And then we’ll turn to what lingers in the wake of destruction. Drawing on medieval literature, local history, and discard studies, we will take a look at how wounded and wasted landscapes— landfills, toxic waterways, superfund sites, and land devastated by ecological catastrophe—invite reflection on issues of material excess, value, and permanence, asking us to consider what remains after the end.
About the Speaker:
Shannon Gayk is Professor of English at Indiana University, where she teaches courses in both medieval and environmental literatures and leads the Environmental Futures team. Her book Apocalyptic Ecologies: From Creation to Doom in Middle English Literature is just out from the University of Chicago Press.
Title: After Apocalyptic Ecologies: Medieval Literature at the End of the World
Part book talk, part meditation on apocalyptic wastelands, this lecture will explore how human artifacts—cultural, literary, and material—continue to haunt the stories we tell about our planet’s possible futures. We’ll begin with a glance at how premodern ideas about ecological apocalypse speak to our own age of climate precarity. And then we’ll turn to what lingers in the wake of destruction. Drawing on medieval literature, local history, and discard studies, we will take a look at how wounded and wasted landscapes— landfills, toxic waterways, superfund sites, and land devastated by ecological catastrophe—invite reflection on issues of material excess, value, and permanence, asking us to consider what remains after the end.
About the Speaker:
Shannon Gayk is Professor of English at Indiana University, where she teaches courses in both medieval and environmental literatures and leads the Environmental Futures team. Her book Apocalyptic Ecologies: From Creation to Doom in Middle English Literature is just out from the University of Chicago Press.
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