La Terre contre l’homme destructeur, ou la question de la dégradation de la planète d’après Maxime Chattam

Abstract

In the Autre-Monde series, by combining fantasy, science fiction and young adult fiction, Maxime Chattam delivers a disturbing vision of the world in which adults are punished for abusing the Earth’s resources, whereas children and teenagers acquire unusual talents necessary to create a new reality, inhabited by people living in harmony with the planet. The analysis of the first volume of the series, describing the Earth’s rebellion and the superstorm leading to the transformation of the world, aims to show how fantastic modes are used by the author to address the topic of ecological crisis, as well as its causes and consequences, in a form attractive to the adolescent reader, whose future depends greatly on the relationship between Earth and humanity. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to precede the analysis with an outline of how fantasy and science fiction approach the theme of the environment as well as to examine the novel in question with regard to the ecology-related concept of the Anthropocene and the Gaia hypothesis.

Keywords:

• Maxime Chattam
• French fantasy and science fiction
• climate fiction
• the Gaia hypothesis
• ecological crisis
• the Anthropocene

Notes

1 See Alison Sperling, “Introduction,” Paradoxa, no. 31, Climate Fictions, 2019–2020, pp. 7–22 (https://paradoxa.com/no-30-climate-fictions-2020/. Accessed 12 Sep. 2020) [pp. 10–11].

2 See Zylinska, Joanna. Minimal Ethics for the Anthropocene. Open Humanities Press, 2014,

(https://dx.doi.org/10.3998/ohp.12917741.0001.001. Accessed 30 Dec. 2020), p. 10.

3 See Zylinska, p. 11.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ewa Drab

Ewa Drab works as an Assistant Professor at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. In her academic research, she focuses upon the study of twenty-first-century fantasy, dystopia and steampunk. Additionally, her professional interests center around the specifics of contemporary fantasy translation (literary and audio-visual: novels, films, video games), mostly in reference to the secondary world reconstruction. She has published over twenty-five articles in English, French and Polish.