The History of Literature 715 How Did George Eliot and the Victorians Respond to Climate Collapse? (with Nathan Hensley) | People at Museums Are Losing Their Brains! | My Last Book with Stephen Browning and Simon Thomas
Jul 10, 2025
Nathan Hensley, an Associate Professor of English at Georgetown University and author of 'Action Without Hope,' delves into Victorian literature's response to climate anxiety. He discusses how writers like George Eliot and Emily Brontë reflected societal despair through their works, highlighting the lessons they offer for today's crises. The conversation also touches on the comedic yet troubling impact of tourism on art, plus a heartfelt tribute to the late Stephen Browning as he and Simon Thomas share their literary bucket list.
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Turner’s Art Captures Industrial Impact
- J.M. Turner's paintings document the industrial transformation of Britain, merging beauty with environmental destruction.
- His use of new pigments sourced from industrial processes physically archives early fossil-fuel extraction.
Victorians’ Early Climate Awareness
- Victorians noticed air pollution, extinction, and fossil fuel depletion early on.
- They understood society depended on unsustainable infinite economic expansion despite Earth's finitude.
Wuthering Heights as Eco-Archive
- Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights embeds subtle markers of environmental exploitation, like exhausted quarries and extinction relics.
- These details depict social transformation from common to enclosed, commodified lands.
