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Peter Frase’s Four Futures, Malka Older’s Infomocracy, and Some Futures for the Humanities (with maybe a little Shakespeare thrown in)
- Author(s):
- Sujata Iyengar (see profile)
- Date:
- 2021
- Group(s):
- LLC Shakespeare, TM Book History, Print Cultures, Lexicography
- Subject(s):
- Science fiction, Young adult fiction, Apocalyptic literature, Dystopias
- Item Type:
- Conference paper
- Conf. Title:
- Hudson Strode Symposium on The Future of Teaching Shakespeare
- Conf. Org.:
- University of Alabama
- Conf. Loc.:
- Tuscaloosa, AL
- Conf. Date:
- February 2020
- Tag(s):
- cli-fi, Station Eleven, Malka Older, Kim Stanley Robinson, Peter Frase, YA fiction, Apocalyptic Literature, Book culture, Dystopia
- Permanent URL:
- http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/12g3-kv93
- Abstract:
- I briefly survey the function of books, written artifacts, literary criticism and connoisseurship/curation in apocalyptic literature from Mary Shelley to Malka Older (with a nod to the Book of Revelation) and in contemporary Young Adult fiction and "cli-fi" -- science fiction and fantasy centered around climate change, such as Kim Stanley Robinson's California Trilogy, Octavia Butler's _Parable of the Sower_, Emily St. John Mandel's _Station Eleven_, Jeff VanderMeer's _Annihilation_, Neal Stephenson's _Seveneves_, and Malka Older's _Infomocracy_. If I were to revise it, I'd include a full reading of Butler and maybe some references to the relationship between books and learning in N.K. Jemisin's _The Fifth Season_. It might also be worth looking at Ursula LeGuin's _Wizard of Earthsea_ trilogy, but to do all that would really be to turn it into an essay on feminist apocalyptic cli-fi rather than the brief survey it is currently.
- Notes:
- This was the last paper I delivered in person before the pandemic; I've been unable to bring myself to return to it to revise, given the disaster-related topic.
- Metadata:
- xml
- Status:
- Published
- Last Updated:
- 2 years ago
- License:
- All Rights Reserved
books_apocalypse.pdf