Umweltverschmutzung, Artensterben, globale Erwarmung - oft beeinflussen literarische Texte die Diskussion von Umweltfragen. Die erste umfassende Studie umwelt-engagierter Literatur aus Island und Norwegen verfolgt einen innovativen Ansatz, der mit ecocriticism, Umweltgeschichte, Umweltethik und Kulturoekologie mehrere Bereiche der environmental humanities verbindet. Die untersuchten Texte reichen zeitlich von Halldor Laxness' provokantem Essay Der Krieg gegen das Land (1970) bis zu Jostein Gaarders Klimawandelroman Anna (2013). Allen Werken gemeinsam ist eine oekologisch motivierte Kulturkritik. Doch der Vergleich zwischen Island und Norwegen zeigt: Gegensatzliche nationale Selbstbilder fuhren zu erstaunlichen Unterschieden in der literarischen wie ausserliterarischen Umweltdiskussion.

Many contemporary environmental risks and global environmental changes occurring today are unprecedented in the history of human life on earth. However, the images and narratives through which humans relate to these phenomena are built on existing cultural tropes and narrative models. Cultural, social, and historical contexts strongly influence how we construct images and narratives of nature and the environment. It is therefore highly important to study such narratives in works of literature, film, and other forms of cultural expression in relation to the specific circumstances from which they arise. Nordic Narratives of Nature and the Environment is the first English language anthology that presents ecocritical research on northern European literatures and cultures. The contributors examine specifically Nordic narratives of nature and the environment, with a focus on the cultures and literatures of the modern northern European countries Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, including Sapmi, which is the land traditionally inhabited by the indigenous Sami people. Covering northern European literatures and cultures over a period of more than two centuries, this anthology provides substantial insights into both old and new narratives of nature and the environment as well as intertextual relations, the variety of cultural traditions, and current discourses connected to the Nordic environmental imagination. Case studies relating to works of literature, film, and other media shed new light on the role of culture, history and society in the formation of narratives of nature and the environment, and offer a comprehensive and multi-faceted overview of the most recent ecocritical research in Scandinavian studies.