{"product_id":"life-in-plastic-caren-irr-9781517909888","title":"Life in Plastic: Artistic Responses to Petromodernity","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA vital contribution to environmental humanities that explores artistic responses to the plastic age\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSince at least the 1960s, plastics have been a defining feature of contemporary life. They are undeniably utopian--wondrously innovative, cheap, malleable, durable, and convenient. Yet our proliferating use of plastics has also triggered catastrophic environmental consequences. Plastics are piling up in landfills, floating in oceans, and contributing to climate change and cancer clusters. They are derived from petrochemicals and enmeshed with the global oil economy, and they permeate our consumer goods and their packaging, our clothing and buildings, our bodies and minds. Plastic reshapes our cultural and social imaginaries. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith impressive breadth and compelling urgency, the essays in \u003ci\u003eLife in Plastic\u003c\/i\u003e examine the arts and literature of the plastic age. Focusing mainly on post-1960s North America, the collection spans a wide variety of genres, including graphic novels, superhero comics, utopic and dystopic science fiction, poetry, and satirical prose, as well as vinyl records and visual arts. Essays by a remarkable lineup of cultural theorists interrogate how plastic--as material and concept--has affected human sensibilities and expression. The collection reveals the place of plastic in reshaping how we perceive, relate to, represent, and re-imagine bodies, senses, environment, scale, mortality, and collective well-being.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUltimately, the contributors to \u003ci\u003eLife in Plastic\u003c\/i\u003e think through plastic with an eye to imagining our way out of plastic, moving toward a postplastic future.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eContributors: Crystal Bartolovich, Syracuse U; Maurizia Boscagli, U of California, Santa Barbara; Christopher Breu, Illinois State U; Loren Glass, U of Iowa; Sean Grattan, U of Kent; Nayoung Kim, Brandeis U; Jane Kuenz, U of Southern Maine; Paul Morrison, Brandeis U; W. Dana Phillips, Towson U in Maryland and Rhodes U in Grahamstown, South Africa; Margaret Ronda, UC-Davis; Lisa Swanstrom, U of Utah; Jennifer Wagner-Lawlor, Pennsylvania State U; Phillip E. Wegner, U of Florida; Daniel Worden, Rochester Institute of Technology. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Caren Irr\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1517909880\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781517909888\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Minnesota Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/30\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 304\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.00lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.80d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCaren Irr is professor of English at Brandeis University. She is author or editor of five previous books, among them \u003ci\u003eToward the Geopolitical Novel: US Fiction in the 21st Century\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Suburbs of Dissent: Cultural Politics in the United States and Canada during the 1930s\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Caren Irr","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44047651438847,"sku":"9781517909888","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_ade083c0-559d-4d00-b05c-e7772f2a57a5.jpg?v=1684991442","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/life-in-plastic-caren-irr-9781517909888","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}