| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation argues that contrary to recent criticism of climate fiction, many works of cli-fi engage with climate justice by exploring the connections between the climate crisis, colonialism, environmental racism, dehumanization, and neoliberal capitalism. Using Nicole Roger’s concept of “wild time” as an organizing structure, my project reads texts set in different points of the climate crisis—the present moment, the near future, and the far future—and argues that the requirements for climate, environmental, and ecological justice will differ as the climate crisis progresses. Specifically, I read works by Thomas King, Doreen Vanderstoop, Paolo Bacigalupi, Sherri L. Smith, Premee Mohamed, Sam J. Miller, Harold Johnson, and Kim Stanley Robinson, and argue that the need for justice in climate-changed futures is a persistent theme in all of their works. Each work of cli-fi analyzed herein represents specific elements of the climate crisis, from racial extractivism to drought, flooding, and disease; the conditions differ based on each novel’s setting, demonstrating how climate change is a global problem with profoundly local consequences, and suggesting that solutions must also consider multiple scales. Despite their differences, the novels are united in their position that justice in the context of the climate crisis will not be possible without systemic social change. The necessity of such change leads to my conclusion that climate utopianism may be the impetus for imagining the alternatives that are required to center justice in the context of climate change. | en_US |
