Ilmastonmuutoskertomukset, 5 op

In this course we will discuss how climate change is imagined in contemporary literature. Climate change is a complex issue with vast spatial and temporal dimensions, which begs the question: How do we imagine such an abstract issue? What narratives can convey the reality of the climate emergency? Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh has claimed that “the climate crisis is also a crisis of culture, and thus of the imagination” (The Great Derangement 2016: 9) and even suggested that the very form of the novel might not be suitable to tell climate change stories. This latter claim has been contested by literary scholars and writers alike. While the rise of the ‘cli-fi’ genre over the last few years has produced many novels that explicitly address the climate emergency, Ghosh’s claim of a ‘crisis of the imagination’ nevertheless resonates since cli-fi novels tend to highlight certain environmental concerns, protagonists, and places over others. This course will thus not only examine the representational challenges that such an elusive ‘hyperobject’ (Timothy Morton) presents for literature and analyze different narrative techniques and generic conventions of the cli-fi genre, but we will also consider a variety of themes related to how we imagine climate change in cultural texts: Firstly, we will investigate how political and economic systems shape ideas and stories about sustainable futures. Secondly, we will analyze how the cultural imaginary of the climate emergency is continuously contested and reshaped through voices that emphasize intersectional issues of the climate justice (race, class, gender etc.). Finally, we will also look at the emotional themes present in these cli-fi texts and discuss how different emotional responses to climate change (e.g., denial, grief, anxiety, or laughter) are part of the genre. While this course will focus primarily on narrative fiction, we will work with a variety of texts, including short stories, poetry, and film.