Tore Rye Andersen – författare

While Thomas Pynchon is usually described as an American author who primarily writes about American reality, Planetary Pynchon: History, Modernity, and the Anthropocene argues that his major novels, Gravity's Rainbow, Mason & Dixon, and Against the Day, can profitably be read as a global trilogy that presents a coherent historical account of how the emergence and spread of European modernity across the world have had devastating consequences for the planet and its inhabitants. This book sets a new agenda in Pynchon studies, charting his early anticipation of anthropocenic and planetary ideas, including globalization's demand for constant growth. It combines close textual readings with broad perspectives on large thematic arcs and stylistic developments across Pynchon's entire career as well as an extensive dialogue with the rich reception of his work.

In recent decades, the Anthropocene has become a powerful concept for understanding climate change, extinction, and planetary crisis, and literature is one of its most vital arenas of reflection and imagination. Drawing together the work of both emerging and leading scholars from across the globe, this volume explores how stories, genres, and critical debates illuminate humanity's profound impact on Earth. From Romantic precursors to contemporary climate fiction, from deep time to speculative futures, this volume traces how literature and literary studies grapple with questions of scale, ethics, and entanglement across global contexts. Combining historical depth with current theory, the book offers fresh insights into topics such as infrastructure, animal studies, colonialism, and extractivism, while engaging urgent questions: How have literature and literary studies anticipated and responded to humanity's fraught relation with the planet? Can literature change our behavior and help us imagine new, more sustainable ways of living?