Arthur Rose is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of English and Creative Writing at the University of Exeter. His publications include Literary Cynics: Borges, Beckett, Coetzee (2017), Asbestos—The Last Modernist Object (2022) and, together with Fred Cooper and Luna Dolezal, COVID-19 and Shame (2023).

• Acknowledgements Preface: What’s the Use of Writing about Asbestos?Introduction: Asbestos and ModernismPart One: Prefiguring Asbestos1. A Utopian Impulse2. Clues and MysteriesPart Two: Configuring Asbestos3. Salamander Cotton4. Illness Narratives5. Compensating for Franz KafkaPart Three: Transforming Asbestos6. The Mine7. The Factory8. The HomeConclusion: The Dump Bibliography

Framed around the global history of asbestos, Rose uses literary texts, tropes, characters and creators to deepen our understanding of a culture of asbestos in new and often surprising ways. Rose’s multidisciplinary approach shows how deeply culturally-embedded the mineral was – and remains – through his sophisticated and innovative scholarship.

Arthur Rose is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of English and Creative Writing at the University of Exeter. His publications include Literary Cynics: Borges, Beckett, Coetzee (2017), Asbestos—The Last Modernist Object (2022) and, together with Fred Cooper and Luna Dolezal, COVID-19 and Shame (2023).

• Acknowledgements Preface: What’s the Use of Writing about Asbestos?Introduction: Asbestos and ModernismPart One: Prefiguring Asbestos1. A Utopian Impulse2. Clues and MysteriesPart Two: Configuring Asbestos3. Salamander Cotton4. Illness Narratives5. Compensating for Franz KafkaPart Three: Transforming Asbestos6. The Mine7. The Factory8. The HomeConclusion: The Dump Bibliography

Framed around the global history of asbestos, Rose uses literary texts, tropes, characters and creators to deepen our understanding of a culture of asbestos in new and often surprising ways. Rose’s multidisciplinary approach shows how deeply culturally-embedded the mineral was – and remains – through his sophisticated and innovative scholarship.

Arthur Rose is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of English and Creative Writing at the University of Exeter. His publications include Literary Cynics: Borges, Beckett, Coetzee (2017), Asbestos—The Last Modernist Object (2022) and, together with Fred Cooper and Luna Dolezal, COVID-19 and Shame (2023).

• Acknowledgements Preface: What’s the Use of Writing about Asbestos?Introduction: Asbestos and ModernismPart One: Prefiguring Asbestos1. A Utopian Impulse2. Clues and MysteriesPart Two: Configuring Asbestos3. Salamander Cotton4. Illness Narratives5. Compensating for Franz KafkaPart Three: Transforming Asbestos6. The Mine7. The Factory8. The HomeConclusion: The Dump Bibliography

Framed around the global history of asbestos, Rose uses literary texts, tropes, characters and creators to deepen our understanding of a culture of asbestos in new and often surprising ways. Rose’s multidisciplinary approach shows how deeply culturally-embedded the mineral was – and remains – through his sophisticated and innovative scholarship.