As climate change and its consequences manifest with increasing force, a new literary genre is gaining in popularity and making a notable appearance in academic curricula worldwide. It is "cli-fi" or climate change fiction: a distinctive body of cultural work that engages with anthropogenic climate change and analyses the phenomenon not just in terms of setting but also with regard to social, political and economic issues. This proseminar seeks to explore this emergent corpus of fiction by discussing a selection of novels and short stories focused on impacts on Earth's ecosystems and weather patterns. The analysis of these texts will allow us to survey the cultural knowledge surrounding global warming and open new pathways of inquiry into how these works of fiction deal with the representational and conceptual challenges that this crisis of global proportions poses. More specifically, with the help of texts by Kim Stanley Robinson, T. C. Boyle, John Lanchester, Margaret Atwood, Nathaniel Rich, Helen Simpson, and David Mitchell (and others), we will examine the history and the stylistic features of climate change fiction and critically reassess some of the dominant narratives surrounding this phenomenon. We will also engage in a critical discussion of concepts central to the ecocritical practice, such as nature, place, and justice, and build a cultural repertoire valuable for discussion in the environmental humanities in general.
- Enseignant·e: Jole Fontanesi
- Enseignant·e non éditeur: Julia Straub