Understanding Climate Change in Fiction: The Scientist and Society in Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behaviour and Ian McEwan's Solar
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2023-06-15
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en
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The output of climate fiction, or cli-fi, has significantly increased in the last two decades. As climate change becomes a more urgent issue every year, it is vital to continue research into how climate change is represented in fiction and what this might suggest about humanity’s perceptions of the issue and our future. This thesis therefore seeks to contribute to this ongoing debate in climate fiction by analysing the interaction of science and society in the cli-fi novels Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver and Solar by Ian McEwan, specifically through the scientist character. This thesis examines the critical theory of cli-fi that builds on the Anthropocene in its understanding of climate change as the accumulation of science and society. By means of a close reading method, the two novels are analysed within this theoretical context. This analysis determines that Solar offers a pessimistic view of the interaction between science and society, whereas Flight Behaviour is more hopeful. This thesis concludes that these novels support the theory of cli-fi and demonstrate that science and society are inextricably intertwined and thus both needed to fully understand climate change in fiction.
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Faculteit der Letteren