Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. Climate Change and the Contemporary Novel
  • Cited by 55
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
March 2019
Print publication year:
2019
Online ISBN:
9781108610162
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108610162
Subjects:
Literature, Literary Theory, English Literature after 1945
Series:
Cambridge Studies in Twenty-First-Century Literature and Culture
Information

Book description

Climate change is becoming a major theme in the contemporary novel, as authors reflect concerns in wider society. Given the urgency and enormity of the problem, can literature (and the emotional response it provokes) play a role in answering the complex ethical issues that arise because of climate change? This book shows that conventional fictional techniques should not be disregarded as inadequate to the demands of climate change; rather, fiction has the potential to challenge us, emotionally and ethically, to reconsider our relationship to the future. Adeline Johns-Putra focuses on the dominant theme of intergenerational ethics in the contemporary novel: that is, the idea of our obligation to future generations as a basis for environmental action. Rather than simply framing parenthood and posterity in sentimental terms, the climate change novel uses their emotional appeal to critique their anthropocentricism and identity politics, offering radical alternatives instead.

Reviews

‘… nuanced, solidly researched, well-argued, and methodically sound – indeed, methodologically innovative in its well-developed and sustained eudaimonistic framework … [Climate Change And The Contemporary Novel] will make significant contributions to the fields of environmental ethics, environmental literary criticism, ecofeminism, narrative ethics, and climate change studies, perhaps most importantly in showing these fields the benefits of cross-dialogue.'

Cheryl Lousley - University of Edinburgh

‘Climate change is not simply one more topic to be taken up by novelists. As Johns-Putra argues so powerfully, climate change at once demands new modes of thinking about time and agency, at the same time as it brings to the fore what has always marked the novel: the problem of finding meaning in the various ends (and endings) that direct and interrupt life. This book is essential and enjoyable reading for anyone interested in how we might imagine the world in the wake of the Anthropocene.'

Claire Colebrook - Pennsylvania State University

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

Contents

Contents

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Book summary page views

Total views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.