Analyze any story, movie, show (or other creative text) within the context of the burgeoning genre of climate fiction (or “Cli-Fi”) and as it relates to ongoing conversations about climate change. 4-5 pages. Minimum 2 secondary sources. MLA format.
You have two overlapping objectives in this paper:
Explain what climate fiction is and how it can advance understanding of climate change and/or promote climate action.
Deliver a thesis-driven close reading and rhetorical analysis of your chosen primary text explicating how, why, and to what effect the author represents climate change in his or her creative work.
You will need to use a minimum of 2 secondary sources in your essay. You can use secondary sources for a number of purposes: to help you define climate fiction and the conventions of the genre, to relate your primary source to discussions of representations of climate change in its medium, to engage with commentary and reviews of the primary source, to explain climate change causes and effects relevant to the content of the primary source.
Climate Fiction Short Story Collections
Everything Change, vol. I (Links to an external site.) (free)
Everything Change, vol. II (Links to an external site.) (free)
Warmer (Links to an external site.) (free with Prime)
Climate Films
The Day After Tomorrow
Wall-E
Snowpiercer
Godzilla: King of the Beasts
Interstellar
Waterworld
Mad Max: Fury Road
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Kingsman: The Secret Service
Frozen II
Tenet
Reminiscence
More: https://yaleclimateconnections.org/dl/YCC_Cli_Fi_Listing.pdf (Links to an external site.)
Sources for understanding and defining climate fiction in writing:
Caren Irr, “Climate Fiction in English” in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature (2017) https://oxfordre.com/literature/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.001.0001/acrefore-9780190201098-e-4
Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow, “Cli-Fi: Birth of a Genre” in Dissent (2013) https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/cli-fi-birth-of-a-genre
Bernadette McBride, “Climate Fiction is Imagining a Future Beyond the Climate Crisis” in Quartz (2019) https://qz.com/quartzy/1715812/climate-fiction-is-imagining-a-future-beyond-the-climate-crisis/
Sources for understanding climate fiction in film:
Michael Svoboda, “Cli-Fi Movies: A Guide for Socially-Distanced Viewers” (Links to an external site.) in Yale Climate Connections (2020) https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/05/cli-fi-movies-a-guide-for-socially-distanced-viewers/
Jen Christensen, “Cli-Fi (Climate Fiction) on the Big Screen Changes Minds About Real Climate Change” (Links to an external site.) in CNN (2019) https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/08/world/climate-change-movies-eprise/index.html
Below there is a sample essay about this Cli-Fi essay which you can use as a reference.
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