76-349 Climate Fictions
9 units, Carnegie Mellon University
During the last 20 or so years, a new kind of fiction has emerged responding to scientific models of climate change. Climate fiction, or clifi, most often imagines a future in which nothing has been done or done soon enough to limit global warming. Much of this literature fits into the broad genre of science fiction, but some of it uses other fictional modes, including realism and postmodernism. This course will look at a variety of fictional approaches to climate change, including a few in visual media. We will consider why fiction is a necessary component of our understanding climate changecomputer models are fictions of a sortbut also whether and how fictional narratives such as novels and films can help motivate action. We may also read some earlier narratives of environmental catastrophe, and some nonfictional discussions of climate change. Likely authors include Amitav Ghosh, Margaret Atwood, Barbara Kingsolver, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Richard Powers.
Prerequisites: 76-101 or 76-102 or (76-106 and 76-107) or (76-106 and 76-108) or (76-107 and 76-108)
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