‘At the heart of human politics’: agency and responsibility in the contemporary climate novel

ABSTRACT

How might climate fiction inform public perceptions of climate change and its political stakes? While early proponents of climate fiction called on writers to move the public with visceral cautionary tales, recent climate fiction and criticism thereof aims beyond apocalyptic and catastrophic representation, reflecting broader debates regarding fear and agency in the climate imaginary. This context clarifies the modes of imaginative engagement pursued in recent English-language climate novels, including Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140, Richard Powers’ The Overstory, and Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island. These works respond to patterns of denial and depoliticization by challenging their audiences to reimagine agency and responsibility in politically expansive and ethically demanding terms. Dramatizing complex interconnections between communities, generations, and species, as well as the obligations and possibilities for action to which they give rise, they enrich the climate imaginary by illuminating political potential amidst the overwhelming crisis.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate change
• climate fiction
• climate imaginary
• Kim Stanley Robinson
• Richard Powers
• Amitav Ghosh

Acknowledgments

Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the annual conferences of the Midwest Political Science Association and the Western Political Science Association. I thank all who attended the panels and provided discussion, especially Emily Ray, Jess Whatcott, Sean Parson, Ira Allen, Brian Danoff, Andrew Fletcher, Ryan Poll, and Christopher Brown. I also thank Graeme Hayes and the two anonymous reviewers for Environmental Politics for their notes and Carlos Tarin for advice on the revisions. Thanks is also due to the participants in Harvard’s “Off the Ladder” workshop for their commentary on the second draft, especially Willa Hammit Brown, Thomas Dichter, and Spencer Strub.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).