ABOUT THIS BOOK

How does culture influence human relationships with the environment? In Monstrous Nature and Representations of Environmental Harms, green cultural criminologists Avi Brisman and Nigel South examine stories of monsters and disasters to address how the ways we depict and think about harms to the environment dissuade us from taking care of our planet and each other.

The authors use examples from popular culture, including Disney and Marvel Cinematic Universe films, to consider ideas about how the environment responds to people who cause it harm. Brisman and South identify and discuss three dominant and interrelated depictions of the relationship between humans and the environment: first, nature as monstrous or fear inducing; second, nature and the Earth (or parts of it) as abject; and third, the entanglement of nature and the apocalypse, wherein nature is contributing to the end of the world, with an end point sometimes conceptualized as one without humans.

Monstrous Nature and Representations of Environmental Harms argues that such representations have material consequences. The authors make the case for challenging them so that we neither perpetuate them nor retreat into cynicism and defeatism about the future of our planet.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Avi Brisman is a Professor in the School of Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University, an Adjunct Professor in the School of Justice at Queensland University of Technology, an Honorary Professor at the Newcastle School of Law and Justice at the University of Newcastle, and a University Fellow at the Centre of Law and Social Justice at the University of Newcastle. His most recent monograph is Fieldnotes on a Study of Young People's Perceptions of Crime and Justice: Scaffolding as Structure.

Nigel South is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Essex; Honorary Visiting Professor, Institute for Social Justice and Crime, University of Suffolk; and Adjunct Professor, School of Justice, Queensland University of Technology. In 2022 he received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the British Society of Criminology and in 2013 a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ from the American Society of Criminology, Division on Critical Criminology and Social Justice. His work is the focus of the book Criminological Connections, Directions, Horizons: Essays in Honour of Nigel South.

REVIEWS

"Monstrous Nature is intellectually rich and thought-provoking.... [It] does a masterful job of analyzing dominant representations of environmental harm, but leaves space for further exploration into how 'affirmative' depictions also shape our environmental imaginaries."—Crime, Media, Culture

“[I]mpressively comprehensive and meticulously researched…. Monstrous Nature and Representations of Environmental Harms proves to be an insightful piece of work, efficient in its method and message.”—Ecozon@

“Monstrous Nature and Representations of Environmental Harms is an original, innovative, and unique contribution to criminology. This book is one of the very few that embraces the challenge of taking fiction seriously. Brisman and South provide an exemplary critique and demonstrate an expert interdisciplinary knowledge of extra-criminological theories that extend beyond the disciplines of literary and related theory. This is an outstanding book.”—Rafe McGregor, Reader in Criminology at Edge Hill University, and author of Anthropocide: An Essay in Green Cultural Criminology

“While not an attempt at traditional film or literary criticism, Monstrous Nature and Representations of Environmental Harms uses a green cultural criminological approach to focus on how popular media depicts environmental harm by humans, a subject of interest to ecomedia scholars across many disciplines. This densely researched book elaborates and expands upon the coauthors’ work on green cultural criminology by surveying three major themes in popular culture: ecohorror, abjection, and apocalypse. Its detailed, thoughtful narrative and characterological analyses highlight the environmental messages we learn from media. A vital work for anyone interested in green cultural studies and popular film and literature.”—Carter Soles, Associate Professor of Film Studies at SUNY Brockport, and coeditor of Fear and Nature: Ecohorror Studies in the Anthropocene

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

Preface: Developing the Script on Representations of Environmental Harm

1. Introduction: Exposing and Challenging Environmental Messages in Popular Cultural Forms

2. Monstrous Nature and the Roots and Growth of Ecohorror

3. The Abjection of the Earth

Photo Gallery

4. Apocalyptic Imaginaries

5. Conclusion: Goodbye, Earth (?)(!)

Notes

Bibliography

Index

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