Words that Matter
Those of us with little children often read The Lorax by Dr. Seuss to them at bedtime. The story points toward the past, because the Lorax is a ruin, with only residues remaining of something…
Category: Through the Lens of Literature
Writing at the End of the World: Mayra Montero’s In the Palm of Darkness
Mayra Montero’s In the Palm of Darkness (Tú, la oscuridad, 1995) takes us on an in-depth journey that allows us to understand relationships between the crises caused by climate change and
Who More Cli-Fi than Us?
When I tell people that I research climate change and literature, they usually start asking me about novelists like Kim Stanley Robinson, Claire Vaye Watkins or Jeff VanderMeer. It makes sense. Climate fiction—or cli-fi—that depicts the earth after some kind of future weather-induced apocalypse seems like a natural starting point for a literary study of climate change…
The Melting of Humankind
Imagine one thousand ice-figurines covering the steps of Berlin’s Gendarmernmarkt Square Concert Hall on a warm September day. Similar scenes had emerged before in cities such as São
