This chapter reviews key developments and themes in adaptations of the biblical flood story in Genesis from its antecedents through to the modern day. It then focuses on one recent adaptation, Darren Aronofsky’s Noah (2014). Examining 4000 years of adaptations of the flood myth ecocritically reveals much about humanity’s interaction with the nonhuman world, yet while we might hope a narrative’s evolution becomes progressively ecophilic with time, this remains as uncertain for cross-medial adaptation as it is for biological evolution. Even when tied to a literary anchor like Genesis, genre, character, tone, and meaning vary, sometimes resulting in the same story being used in opposing ways. Aronofsky’s film demonstrates that ecoadaptations can adopt more ecophilic approaches than their primary sources, but that they may ameliorate cultural anxieties as much as they persuade audiences to change. Moreover, the film’s retention of certain ecophobic elements suggests that the apparent trajectory toward environmental justice is not inevitable.

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The Ark of the Moral Universe: Recycling Genesis Toward Environmental Justice

  • Matthew Page

摘要

This chapter reviews key developments and themes in adaptations of the biblical flood story in Genesis from its antecedents through to the modern day. It then focuses on one recent adaptation, Darren Aronofsky’s Noah (2014). Examining 4000 years of adaptations of the flood myth ecocritically reveals much about humanity’s interaction with the nonhuman world, yet while we might hope a narrative’s evolution becomes progressively ecophilic with time, this remains as uncertain for cross-medial adaptation as it is for biological evolution. Even when tied to a literary anchor like Genesis, genre, character, tone, and meaning vary, sometimes resulting in the same story being used in opposing ways. Aronofsky’s film demonstrates that ecoadaptations can adopt more ecophilic approaches than their primary sources, but that they may ameliorate cultural anxieties as much as they persuade audiences to change. Moreover, the film’s retention of certain ecophobic elements suggests that the apparent trajectory toward environmental justice is not inevitable.