An in-progress list of scholarly work about cli-fi or clearly relevant to cli-fi, with brief descriptions.
Books
Adam Trexler, Anthropocene Fictions: The Novel in a Time of Climate Change
The best study to-date of climate change fiction: comprehensive and compelling. With lengthy readings of Solar, J.G. Ballard, Atwood, Baciagalupi, and Robinson, among a host of others.
Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction, edited by Gerry Canavan and Kim Stanley Robinson
Among this anthology of essays that connect ecology with science fiction, Canavan’s Introduction and the essays by Christopher Palmer, Adeline Johns-Putra and Eric C. Otto are particularly relevant. Robinson’s interview with Canavan in the book’s Afterward would be a particularly effective reading to pair with his fiction.
A historical anthology focused on scientific predictions and discussions about nature’s future. Establishes historical and intellectual context for current understandings of global warming and climate change. (Review)
Articles
Surveys how most works of cli-fi remain complicit in colonialism, speciesism and other dominant narratives of climate change, and argues for the necessity of a critical ecofeminist approach along with an expansion of the genres, geographies, and writers who narrate climate change. Discusses the fiction of Boyle, Crichton, and Robinson, and — more significantly — offers up a host of other genres and works that demand to be read with these oft-cited examples. (A longer version of Gaard’s piece is forthcoming in her book Critical Ecofeminism (Lexington Books, 2016).
Tackles the theme of terraforming with specific reference to Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312 and Paolo Baciagalupi’s The Windup Girl.
Wide-ranging summary of climate change in both literature and literary studies. Provides examples of fiction, drama, and poetry. Best bibliographical treatment of climate change literature to-date.
Discusses Kim Stanley Robinson’s work alongside Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior.
An article by an environmental historian celebrating the turn towards “environmental humanities” and calling for humanities teachers and scholars to collaborate with environmental scientists.
