Contemporary Fiction and Climate Uncertainty Narrating Unstable Futures

• Main Author: Caracciolo, Marco (auth)
• Format: Electronic Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: London Bloomsbury Academic 2022
• Series: Environmental Cultures
• Subjects: Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers; Social impact of environmental issues; narrative form; climate crisis; climate change; parallel worlds; science fiction; empathy; ethics; AI; artificial intelligence; video games; gameplay; futurity; ecological crisis; storyworlds; unnatural narrative; nonhuman
• Online Access: OAPEN Library: download the publication; OAPEN Library: description of the publication

Summary

This open access book argues that storytelling is an important resource in coming to terms with the loss of the feeling of living a grounded existence where the future remains relatively stable and predictable. Faced with the specter of climate catastrophe, we lose confidence in the future-a well-documented response in the environmental movement, for example. Yet stories, and in particular sophisticated fictional stories, can help us negotiate that uncertainty: they offer affective and imaginative tools that channel the instability of our climate future and invite audiences to accept its fundamental uncertainty. In all, this book represents a serious contribution to the environmental humanities that brings a flexible formal approach to bear on central questions of our time. Its commentary on contemporary works of prose and digital narrative is an aid for navigating climate uncertainty and appreciating the more-than-human scale-but also the tragic ramifications-of the ecological crisis. The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by The European Research Council and the University of Ghent.

Physical Description

1 electronic resource (232 p.)

ISBN

9781350233928
9781350233911
9781350233904

Access

Open Access