Petrocultures: Oil, Politics, Culture

Petrocultures: Oil, Politics, Culture is a book edited by Sheena Wilson, Adam Carlson and Imre Szeman that increases the scope of the Energy Humanities and, throught its multidisciplinary effort and a broad array of historical, geographical, and literary study, serves to consolidate the significance of this field of research. This extensive book examines a barrel of oil from practically every perspective available, from its infrastructural network to its complex material substance, from the aesthetic concerns to the philosophical dilemma. Taking oil as the foundation of modern life, these essays demonstrates how oil’s broad network of social narratives, as well as the fossil fuel extractive technologies and circulation, shape global behaviors, desires and imaginaries, while they also offer new insights on the cultural ecologies oil has triggered.