Climate crisis and literature: towards propositive narratives

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of representations of climate crisis in contemporary literature, using Anglophone fiction as a starting point, while also reflecting on the representation of climate change in the fictions of different European countries. Today, amid an unprecedented climate crisis, manifested by increasingly frequent extreme weather events, literary creators from all over the world strive to use fiction to inspire action. In this context, a new literary trend called climate fiction (cli-fi) has emerged and undergone extraordinary development in Anglophone fiction over the last 15 years. This effervescence of literary production has aroused a growing interest of many scholars around the world. As a literary category, cli-fi has been proven to have potential to awaken people’s consciences. This chapter suggests that one of the possible tasks for cli-fi is to suggest solutions to future problems. Furthermore, empirical ecocriticism has demonstrated that the catastrophic framework often fails to inspire action. Therefore, this chapter argues that the most successful works of cli-fi are those that offer models of social reorganisation and a profound change of values as climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. It discusses the emergent trend towards such narratives, while proposing the coinage propositive cli-fi narrative