We are entering a wetter, more violent, and bluer future in which our coastal practices—residence, recreation, labor, and coexistence with wildlife—are increasingly challenged by climate change. The latest IPCC report projects a global sea-level rise of 43–84 cm, possibly up to two meters, by the end of the century, alongside more frequent and intense storm surges, hurricanes, and cloudbursts.

Our project begins from this Anthropocene premise. We work from the hypothesis that literary history holds practical knowledge about coastal living—what has worked and what has failed in human encounters with the sea. Such knowledge, whether historically recorded or imaginatively projected, can inform today’s adaptation to a bluer and wetter world.

This practical dimension is complemented by a philosophical one. We explore how literature articulates perceptions of nature and models of social organization that may inspire or caution us as we confront the need for behavioral change and a new mindset beyond technological solutions alone.

Temporally, the project spans coastal literature from c. 1800 to the present, encompassing both retrospective and future-oriented works. Geographically, it includes texts from coasts of the Global North and the Global South.

Project participants:  

Søren Frank, Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics at University of Copenhagen

Tanushree Ghosh, Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics at University of Copenhagen

Karl Emil Rosenbæk Reetz, Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics at University of Copenhagen

Publications and outreach:

Karl Emil Rosenbæk Reetz has published the following articles related to the project:

Rosenbæk, K. E. (2023). Oceanic irrealism: Danish petrofiction below the surface. Journal of Energy History, (10). (Read more)

Rosenbæk, K. E. (2023). Nordic literature and the oil impasse: Contemporary petrofiction from Denmark and Norway (Ph.d.-afhandling, Syddansk Universitet, Det Humanistiske Fakultet). (Read more)

Rosenbæk, K. E. (2024). Coastal world literature: Encounters at the shores of Europe. Ecozon@, 15(2), 29–46. (Read more)

Rosenbæk, K. E. (2024, November 22). Waterwork: The clash between social rights and fossil capitalism in Norwegian fiction. Manuskript under udgivelse. (Read more)

Tanushree Ghosh is working on her thesis in which she examines literary visions of sea level rise, coastal waste, corals and reefs among others. She has published one article related to the project:

Ghosh, T. (2025). “‘What was once a rushing torrent, has become a broad river!’: Reflections on violation of socio‑ecological justice in Orijit Sen’s River of Stories and Sarnath Banerjee’s All Quiet in Vikaspuri.” I S. Ray (Red.), River fiction of India: Intersectional flows of narratives, geographies, and histories (s. 154–167). Routledge. (Read more)

Søren Frank is working on a monograph, Antropocæn – KYST – Litteratur, and has so far published a series of chapters and articles that will eventually become part of this monograph:

Frank, S. (2025, June 27). Blue ecology. Department of Cultural Studies and the Arts. (Read more)

Frank, S. (2025). Blå litteraturhistorie: Hvordan vi (over)lever i en vådere fremtid. Standart, 39(1), 98–103.

Frank, S. (2025). Økokritiske læsestrategier: Cheminova i dansk samtidslitteratur. I S. Auken, S. B. Nielsen & H. K. Haastrup (Red.), Klima i litteratur, sprogbrug og medier (s. 45–55). Hans Reitzels Forlag. (Read more)

Frank, S. (2024). Det store blå Norden: Oceanisk fortid og fremtid. Nordisk Tidskrift för Vetenskap, Konst och Industri, 4, 381–390.

Søren Frank has also been participating in several podcasts and given lectures around Denmark. In addition, he has delivered keynotes at Sorbonne/École Pratique des Hautes Études, École normale supérieure, and LMU München. He is currently editing a collective volume on the sea in Nordic literature with two colleagues, and his own contribution to this volume consists of a chapter on Holger Drachmann newspaper dispatches from the 1872 storm surge (Routledge, 2026). 

If you are interested in the project, please contact project manager Søren Frank s.frank@hum.ku.dk