The Humanities' Role in Addressing Climate Change Through Fictional Narratives
Abstract
Tackling environmental challenges has required the expertise of fields outside of science, namely the humanities. Literature, in particular, has largely contributed to global environmental protection. More specifically, this paper suggests that fiction stories have actively participated in helping scientists and nonscientists alike to shape better environmental sense for their readers. To illustrate, the texts of many influential environmental writers, such as John Muir and Rachel Carson, incorporate stories in scientific writing to successfully impact readers and develop planetary awareness and responsibility. In highlighting the role of literature and stories in making the environmental discourse effective for environmental scientists, this paper also turns attention toward the literary genre of speculative fiction. The environmentally-abundant writings of speculative fiction can actively challenge and expand our assumptions on many human and nonhuman issues. Additionally, since these narratives call for critical approaches that interpret their environmental meanings, ecocriticism can be a reliable interdisciplinary lens in this regard. The ecological literary approach facilitates both reading environmentally-focused fiction as well as connecting scholars and practitioners from different fields to collaborate under the encompassing field of the environmental humanities.
Keywords: science and the humanities, climate change, speculative fiction, ecocriticism, the environmental humanities
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