Scales of Survival: The Hope of Realist Subversions in Contemporary Climate Fiction Restricted; Files Only

Abstract

The traditionally individualist scope of the realist novel conflicts with the global scale of climate change. This thesis explores how contemporary climate fiction navigates this tension by embracing realist conventions and then subverting them to illustrate human finitude. In climate fiction, human limitations manifest on both physical and temporal scales. The End We Start From by Megan Hunter, The Inland Sea by Madeleine Watts, and The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson exhibit the dominance of the collective through omission of proper names, disruption of narrative closure, and expansions of the notion of identity. Along with A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet, The Ministry for the Future illustrates the importance of the indefinite time scale over the short-range personal time scale through commentary on narratives about the value of the future. The subversions of these novels are necessary, however, to the comedic structure of their endings. The comedic realist climate fiction ending is best described in Jenny Offill’s Weather as the “obligatory note of hope” (ONOH). I argue that the ONOH of all five novels manifests as some form of chastened survival and is predicated on the recognition of human finitude.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter One: Strange Realism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Chapter Two: Understanding the Indefinite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Chapter Three: Obliged to Hope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79

Works Cited. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82

About this Honors Thesis

Rights statement

• Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.

School	Emory College
Department	English
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Literature, American Literature, Australia, New Zealand and Oceania Literature, English
Keyword	Ecocriticism Climate Fiction Contemporary Literature
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	John Sitter, Emory University
Committee Members	Dan Sinykin, Emory University Carrie Keogh, Emory University

Last modified

Primary PDF

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions
	File download under embargo until 27 May 2024	2022-04-11 23:47:45 -0400	File download under embargo until 27 May 2024

Supplemental Files

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions