Climate fiction is often categorised as a sub-genre of speculative fiction, which draws on the contextual fears of its composers and encapsulates the anxieties of its era, in order to transpose these issues into a possible future. Unlike typical science fiction, speculative fiction tends to focus on the human condition and response to this new situation, and how humans adapt, survive and endure even through difficult circumstances (Heinlein, 1847, p.3). Climate fiction further elucidates these ideas, humanising issues of climate change by allowing readers to empathise with the characters and imbuing the need to protect and conserve our natural world and way of life.
At their heart, climate fiction promotes sustainability and conservation through their depictions of possible futures. Initially, climate fiction narratives largely consisted of ‘disaster stories set in the future’ (Ghosh, 2015) and were primarily dystopian in nature, but this is changing. The texts turn abstract ideas about ecological collapse into something close and tangible and paradoxically, the narrative representation of possible imagined futures serves to ‘heighten its reality’ in its readership (Trexler, 2015, p.75). Fictional texts exploring post-apocalyptic visions of the future may increase feelings of anxiety and despair in secondary students, which may impede their value for academic, social and emotional learning (Leavenworth & Manni, 2020, p.739). Conversely, recent cli-fi works have instead explored resilience and hope, and how the effects of climate change can be delayed or mitigated. This is valuable for students, as it promotes awareness and encourages young people to take positive action. In this way, climate fiction may alleviate some of the existing anxiety felt by young readers and instead produce greater positive feelings for the future (Lundholm, 2019, p.1430).
Climate fiction texts are almost invariably highly political, even if the messages and ideas are subtle (Trexler, p.119). Typically, climate fiction texts have been highly critical of capitalism and governments which prioritise profits and progress (Nilssen, p.36). However, a modern trend within the genre is to move away from such overt messages and adopt a more postmodern approach, by instead representing a range of issues and perspectives which allow students to deduce their own meaning from the text (Johns-Putra, 2018). This is important, as teachers may be disinclined to engage with political or controversial texts in their classrooms, and thus steer away from climate fiction for this reason. However, Szabo (2015) emphasises that climate fiction can actually help depoliticise the topic, by focusing on the personal, human narratives and the implications that might ensue. Whilst the political messaging is something that should be considered by Teacher Librarians (TL’s) during the collection development process, climate fiction should be added to high school collections as they can encourage readers to adopt sustainable practises in their own lives, and also foster a sense of ‘global responsibility’ (Echterling, 2016, p.286).
Suggested Climate fiction texts:
He, J. (2021). The ones we’re meant to find. Roaring Brook.
Kwaymullina, A. (2012). The interrogation of Ashala Wolf. Walker Books Australia.
MacDribble, B. (2020). Across the risen sea. Angus and Unwin.
McCauley, D. (2020). Daylight come. Peepal Tree.
Shusterman, N. (2018). Dry. Simon & Schuster.
References
Echterling, C. (2016). How to save the world and other lessons from children’s environmental literature. Children’s Literature in Education, 47, 283-299. doi:10.1007/s10583-016-9290-6
Ghosh, A. (2016). The great derangement: climate change and the unthinkable. Chicago University.
Heinlein, R.A. (1947). On the writing of speculative fiction. https://staging.paulrosejr.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/on_the_writing_of_speculative_ficiton.pdf
Johns-Putra, A. (2018). The rest Is silence: Postmodern and postcolonial possibilities in climate change fiction. Studies in the Novel 50(1), 26-42. doi:10.1353/sdn.2018.0002
Leavenworth, M.L. & Manni, A. (2020). Climate fiction and young learner’s thoughts – a dialogue between literature and education. Environmental Education Research, 27(5), 727-742. doi:10.1080/13504622.2020.1856345.
Lundholm, C. (2019). Where to look and what to do? Blank and bright spots in research on environmental and climate change education. Environmental Education Research, 25(10), 1427-1437. Doi: 10.1080/13504622.2019.1700066
Nilssen, K. (2020). Climate change literature in the English subject classroom. [Master’s thesis, University of Agder]. https://uia.brage.unit.no/uia-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2726454/EN-501%20Karoline%20Nilssen.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Szabo, E.B. (2015). Saving the world one word at a time: writing Cli-Fi. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
Trexler, A. (2015). Anthropocene fictions: the novel in the time of climate change. University of Virginia Press.