The romance of extraction underlies and partly defines Western modernity and our cultural
imaginaries. Combining affect studies and environmental humanities this volume analyzes
societies' devotion to extraction and fossil resources. This devotion is shaped by a nostalgic
view on settler colonialism as well as by contemporary »affective economies« (Sara Ahmed). The
contributors examine the links between forms of extractivism and gendered discourses of
sentimentality and the ways in which cultural narratives and practices deploy the sentimental
mode (in plots of attachment sacrifice and suffering) to promote or challenge extractivism.
