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Pollution Theory

Reading Toxic Entanglement in the Anthropocene

Pollution Theory cover

Pollution Theory

Reading Toxic Entanglement in the Anthropocene

Quantity
Pre-order. Available 29 Oct 2026
£76.50 RRP £85.00 Website price saving £8.50 (10%)

Payment for this pre-order will be taken when the item becomes available

Description

Using speculative modes like science fiction novels, film and modernist painting, this book investigates the ways that pollution has come to define every aspect of material life in the Anthropocene.

Offering eight concepts for making sense of the human impact on the planet - haze, flotsam, tumult, glare, solution, blight, splice and feral - this book explores the pollution of air, land, water, noise, light and bodily life. Examining texts by writers such as Octavia Butler, Kurt Vonnegut and JG Ballard, artists such as J.M.W Turner and James Turrell, and the television series Black Mirror, it argues that pollution is at the heart of our relationship to a planet that is no longer natural.

Table of Contents

Introduction - Theory of Pollution
1. The Haze: Fossil fuels and Air Pollution
2. Flotsam: Plastics, Everywhere
3. Solution: Heterogeneity and Mixture
4. Tumult: Noise, Distortion, Static
5. Glare: The Harshness of Light
6. The Blight: Dead Zones
7. Splice: Alien Genes
Conclusion: The Feral: Foreign Elements
Bibliography

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published 29 Oct 2026
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 256
ISBN 9781350543997
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Illustrations 10 bw illus
Dimensions 234 x 156 mm
Series Environmental Cultures
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Emily McAvan

Emily McAvan is Sessional Tutor at Monash Universi…

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