Climate change has come to be recognised as one of the pressing topics of our time, but the topic – the evidence and projections, the risks and remedies – has been discussed for decades. The public discussion has has given rise to heated and long-running controversies, and has involved many segments of the public: from politicians and journalists to lobby groups, activists and scientists. Writers have participated in this debate as well, both by writing novels and non-fictional essays and articles.
This course will focus on the ways that Anglophone novelists have engaged with this topic and on the forms in which they have chosen to represent, and also to intervene in ongoing debates. This will take us through a range of different literary forms, such as thriller, satire, realism, or novel of self-development. Our core texts will be three novels which have arguably made the greatest public impact:
Michael Crichton, State of Fear (2004)
Ian McEwan, Solar (2010)
Barbara Kingsolver, Flight Behaviour (2012)
Please purchase and read these as soon as possible (they are available at our university book store).
Additional materials will include secondary sources and journalistic responses, articles on the debate about “cli-fi” as a new fictional genre, non-fictional essays on representing climate change by literary writers, as well accounts of works by other writers, where we will hope for contributions from participants pursuing additional projects as part of their “M.A. English Studies”.