A timely rethinking of the archetypal story of Noah, the great flood, and who was left behind as the waters rose

Most people know the story of Noah from a childrens bible or a play set with a colorful ship, bearded Noah, pairs of animals, and an uncomplicated vision of survival. Noahs ark, however, will forever be haunted by what it leaves to the rising waters so that the world can begin again.

In Noahs Arkive, Jeffrey J. Cohen and Julian Yates examine the long history of imagining endurance against climate catastropheas well as alternative ways of creating refuge. They trace how the elements of the flood narrative were elaborated in medieval and early modern art, text, and music, and now shape writing and thinking during the current age of anthropogenic climate change. Arguing that the biblical ark may well be the worst possible exemplar of human behavior, the chapters draw on a range of sources, from the Epic of Gilgamesh and Ovids tale of Deucalion and Pyrrah, to speculative fiction, climate fiction, and stories and art dwelling with environmental catastrophe. Noahs Arkive uncovers the startling afterlife of the Genesis narrative written from the perspective of Noahs wife and family, the animals on the ark, and those excluded and so left behind to die. This book of recovered stories speaks eloquently to the ethical and political burdens of living through the Anthropocene.

Following a climate change narrative across the millennia, Noahs Arkive surveys the long history of dwelling with the consequences of choosing only a few to survive in order to start the world over. It is an intriguing meditation on how the story of the ark can frame how we think about environmental catastrophe and refuge, conservation and exclusion, offering hope for a better future by heeding what we know from the past.

Books by Jeffrey J. Cohen