Food, tourism, energy, transport ... as a global and systemic phenomenon, the climate crisis, like a wave, is shaking up all the components of our societies. For literature, this wave is embodied in the emergence of a new science fiction genre: cli-fi. Bearing a virulent social, economic and ecological critique, and engaged in the battle of narratives, the cli-fi nevertheless often struggles to go beyond the simple prospect of a collapse of our societies or even of humanity. However, it has every interest in thinking about this "post-collapse" in order to transform itself into a stimulating laboratory for political experimentation, arming our imaginations with stimulating utopias.
A world without bees? Entire cities swallowed up by the waves? Climate refugees fleeing by the millions from the deserts that are constantly advancing? Summers so hot that everything is on fire? Scientists are predicting it. Writers tell us.
Despite the absence of a unanimously shared definition, most cli-fi works attribute, in accordance with scientific discourse, an anthropic origin to the ecological crisis.
Witness to its time, this literary genre has gained considerable popularity in the last decade, prompting Dan Bloom to assert that "the 21st century will be known as the Age of the cli-fi. Nevertheless, while the spectacular fires in Australia and increasingly hot summers have led to an ever-increasing number of readers taking an interest in cli-fi, the genre began long before the "climate generation" could read.
Identifying a date of birth for the cli-fi is futile. Many trace it back to the 1960s with the post-apocalyptic novels of the British author James G. Ballard (Le Monde Englouti in 1962, Sécheresse in 1964 ...). Others, like Claire Perrin who is preparing a thesis on the subject at the University of Perpignan [1], prefer to start from Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath (1939) arguing that the terrible Dust Bowl is a direct consequence of human agricultural activities.
If the cli-fi is much more developed in the United States than in France, it is because it could have benefited from a more favorable cultural context, Claire Perrin analyses. Indeed, with "natures writing", 19th century American authors such as Thoreau and Walt Whitman made nature a central character in their works very early on, whereas French authors of the same period, from Hugo to Maupassant, most often preferred to write about the City of Light. Today, with the cli-fi, this nature is once again at the centre of the stories, but it has become dangerous, almost vengeful. In addition, a certain literary elitism scorning science fiction may have delayed the development of the cli-fi in France.
The cli-fi, a genre at the service of ecological mobilization
Cli-fi is an inevitably militant and political genre. As such, and as with a vast array of artistic production, it participates in the cultural battle on its own scale.
Indeed, cli-fi works offer a different reading of the long IPCC reports. Far from figures and statistics that are difficult to understand, cli-fi's works can give us a glimpse of what a world at +4°C would be like. They bring to life the scientists' cries of alarm. For example, the American Paolo Bacigalupi describes, with Waterknife (2015), a terrible drought in the southwestern United States that leads to a latent war between California and Arizona for control of the Colorado River. In A History of Bees (2017), Norwegian artist Maja Lunde depicts a world where these indispensable yellow insects have disappeared, forcing humans to pollinate billions of flowers by hand. Here the cli-fi plays a role in awakening consciousness.
The works of cli-fi do indeed offer a different reading of the long IPCC reports. Far from figures and statistics that are difficult to understand, cli-fi's works can give us a glimpse of what a world at +4°C would be like. They bring to life the scientists' cries of alarm. For example, the American Paolo Bacigalupi describes, with Waterknife (2015), a terrible drought in the southwestern United States that leads to a latent war between California and Arizona for control of the Colorado River. In A History of Bees (2017), Norwegian artist Maja Lunde depicts a world where these indispensable yellow insects have disappeared, forcing humans to pollinate billions of flowers by hand. Here the cli-fi plays a role in awakening consciousness.
They do not claim to faithfully predict the future, no one can do so, nor are they writings of scientific value, but they propose "rational romantic conjunctures".
Of course, even though many authors claim to write based on the predictions of scientists, cli-fi works remain primarily works of fiction and should be considered as such. They do not pretend to faithfully predict the future, no one can do so, nor are they writings of scientific value, but they propose "rational romantic conjunctures". Cli-fi authors are first and foremost novelists who write stories. As such, they will not hesitate to move away from scientific discourse if it can serve their narrative.
Unlike scientists, fictional writers therefore have the possibility of acting on a lever that is not rational but emotional. By creating characters, they make it possible to mobilize the reader through empathy. At the Frankfurt Book Fair, essayist Elizabeth Rush explained that cli-fi offers us the opportunity to imagine ourselves in the place of "a person driven out by floods or drought, and from this imaginary position can come radical empathy". For her, the cli-fi could even be "the spark that will lead to a global political transformation". Without going as far as this conclusion, it is fair to point out that the cli-fi is fully engaged in the battle of narratives.
The cli-fi, a genre engaged in the battle of narratives
Stories, by giving meaning to the elements and having an identifying capacity, can bring about a change in individual and collective mentalities and therefore have a mobilizing power[2]. 2] However, against the backdrop of the cultural battle, a war of narratives is being played out. In this struggle, the liberal, capitalist, productivist and consumerist narrative has long prevailed. Nevertheless, it now seems to be losing momentum. The narratives proposed by the cli-fi are in direct conflict with these dominant narratives by describing societies that have been subjected to harsh catastrophes due to a destructive and inadequate economic system.
Alongside this critique of the narrative of Progress, the cli-fi attacks another narrative, this one being born: the narrative of an ecology of consensus.
Science fiction is often the source of strong political criticism. It particularly attacks the narrative of Progress, which is approached with both fascination and mistrust. Without being technophobic, science fiction offers highly developed reflections on technology, allowing us to take a salutary step back from it. The cli-fi thus proposes a strong criticism of environmental geo-engineering, which consists of the voluntary modification of the climate by very large-scale technical projects in order to contain the effects of global warming [3]. 3] Among the geoengineering projects, we find, for example, that of Roger Angel of the University of Arizona, who proposed in 2006 to build a gigantic space umbrella made up of 16,000 billion transparent screens 60cm in diameter. Geo-engineering is often present in the cli-fi, but it is to better show its failure "to save us". It is thus particularly wary of technological solutionism. http://www.folio-lesite.fr/Catalogue/Folio/Folio-SF/Exodes
Alongside this critique of the narrative of Progress, the cli-fi is attacking another narrative, this one being born: the narrative of an ecology of consensus. This narrative suggests that, since humanity has only one planet, we "would all be in the same boat" and therefore we would all have the same interest in working for ecology. This narrative deconflicts ecology and depoliticizes ecology. In reality, the ecological struggle re-actualizes a form of class struggle since it reinforces inequalities: whether on a national or international scale, it is the poorest who pollute the most and the most vulnerable.
Alongside this critique of the narrative of Progress, the cli-fi is attacking another narrative, this one being born: the narrative of an ecology of consensus. This narrative suggests that, since humanity has only one planet, we "would all be in the same boat" and therefore we would all have the same interest in working for ecology. This narrative deconflicts ecology and depoliticizes ecology. In reality, the ecological struggle re-actualizes a form of class struggle since it reinforces inequalities: whether on a national or international scale, it is the poorest who pollute the least but who suffer the most. The cli-fi makes this reality one of its privileged themes. Thus, in Bacigalupi's Waterknife (2015), while the majority of the population is literally dying of heat and thousands of refugees are abandoned in the American desert, the ultra-rich live comfortably in privatized and ultra-secure complexes with a controlled climate. This theme of the secession of the elites is found in France in Jean-Marc Ligny's Exodes (2012), which describes a small world elite living lavishly under a few domes totally cut off from the rest of humanity in total loss. One of these domes is ironically located in ... Davos. In the film Elysium (Neil Blomkamp, 2013), the richest of the richest have fled an overpopulated and devastated Earth to take refuge in a space station.
Being truly "post-apo": thinking about what comes after to become a political laboratory
If the cli-fi is opposed to great stories, she offers little in return. The main identifiable narrative would be that of the collapse of our societies. This difficulty in imagining desirable futures seems to be fairly common in science fiction as a whole, if we are to believe the genre specialist Raphaël Colson, who states in Usbek et Rica magazine that "the post-apocalyptic sub-genre is merging with the anticipation sub-genre, making collapse inevitable even in our imaginations". To use the famous formula, the authors would seem to have more difficulty conceiving the end of capitalism than the end of the world.
However, the collapse is not necessarily entirely negative. The post-apocalyptic genre, if it needs a collapse (natural disaster, nuclear war, epidemic, zombie invasion ...) to envisage the way out of the neo-liberal impasse, may subsequently propose the reconstruction of a society on new bases. This form of robinsonnade could thus be an opportunity to imagine alternative narratives. It would be a matter of turning the collapse into a political laboratory, as Yannick Rumpala, a lecturer at the University of Nice, explains: "If there is no annihilation, what can start again after the red zone has been crossed? Can a collapse for ecological reasons open a window for a new socio-natural contract? How and on what basis? Here, too, fictional production is like a kind of laboratory at your disposal. »
Science fiction can thus ask the question "what if? "which can be a very fertile question.
The author of Out of the Rubble of the World - Ecology, Science Fiction and Ethics of the Future, completes this idea of a political laboratory in an article published in Raisons politiques: "By more or less pressed keys, they (science fiction works) also propose visions of the future. There is no question of taking them as predictions or prophecies. Rather, it is a question of considering that science fiction is also a way of posing hypotheses. And especially bold hypotheses! ». He therefore underlines here the "heuristic potential of science fiction" which can afford to explore fields that research cannot invest in. Science fiction can thus ask the question "what if? "which can prove to be an extremely fertile question. Like philosophers who study societies through a state of nature, science fiction narratives allow "thought experiments". Now, he continues, "the particularity of science fiction narratives is that they set up thought experiments as deconstruction/reconstruction"[4].
4] Thus, it is in this last characteristic of deconstruction/reconstruction through thought that the political force of science fiction and cli-fi is to be found. It is now up to them to take full advantage of it in order to offer us new narratives that carry meaning, so as not to lock our imaginations into a new "apocalyptic
La cli-fi, un genre au service de la mobilisation écologique
La cli-fi est un genre inévitablement militant et politique. À ce titre et comme pour un vaste pan de la production artistique, elle participe à son échelle à la bataille culturelle.
Les œuvres de cli-fi offrent en effet une lecture différente des longs rapports du GIEC. Loin des chiffres et des statistiques difficilement compréhensibles, les œuvres de cli-fi peuvent nous donner à voir ce que serait un monde à +4°C. Ils donnent vie aux cris d’alarmes des scientifiques. Ainsi, l’américain Paolo Bacigalupi nous décrit, avec Waterknife (2015), une terrible sécheresse dans le sud-ouest des États-Unis qui conduit à une guerre larvée entre la Californie et l’Arizona pour le contrôle du fleuve Colorado. La norvégienne Maja Lunde, elle, nous peint, dans Une histoire des abeilles (2017), un monde où ces indispensables insectes jaunes ayant disparu, les humains se retrouvent contraints de polliniser à la main des milliards de fleurs. La cli-fi assume ici un rôle d’éveiller les consciences.
Elles ne prétendent ni prédire fidèlement l’avenir, nul ne peut le faire, ni être des écrits à valeur scientifique mais elles proposent des « conjonctures romanesques rationnelles ».
Bien évidemment, même si beaucoup d’auteurs affirment s’inspirer des prédictions des scientifiques pour écrire, les œuvres de cli-fi demeurent avant tout des œuvres de fiction et doivent être considérées comme telles. Elles ne prétendent ni prédire fidèlement l’avenir, nul ne peut le faire, ni être des écrits à valeur scientifique mais elles proposent des « conjonctures romanesques rationnelles ». Les auteurs de cli-fi sont avant tout des romanciers qui écrivent des histoires. À ce titre, ils n’hésiteront pas à s’éloigner des discours scientifiques si cela peut servir leur narration.
Contrairement aux scientifiques, les auteurs de fiction possèdent donc la possibilité d’agir sur un levier qui n’est pas rationnel mais émotionnel. En créant des personnages, ils permettent de mobiliser le lecteur par l’empathie. L’essayiste Elizabeth Rush explique ainsi, lors du salon du livre de Francfort, que la cli-fi nous offre l’opportunité de nous imaginer à la place « d’une personne chassée par des inondations ou la sécheresse, et, de cette position imaginaire, peut venir une empathie radicale ». Pour elle, la cli-fi pourrait même être « l’étincelle qui conduira à une transformation politique planétaire ». Sans aller jusqu’à cette conclusion, il est juste de souligner que la cli-fi s’engage de plein pied dans la bataille des récits.
La cli-fi, un genre engagé dans la bataille des récits
Les récits, en donnant du sens aux éléments et en ayant une capacité d’identification, peuvent entraîner un changement des mentalités individuelles et collectives et possèdent donc un pouvoir de mobilisation[2]. Or en toile de fond de la bataille culturelle, c’est une guerre des récits qui se joue. Dans cette lutte, le récit libéral, capitaliste, productiviste et consumériste l’a longtemps emporté. Néanmoins, il semble aujourd’hui en perte de vitesse. Les récits proposés par la cli-fi viennent heurter en plein ces récits dominants en décrivant des sociétés soumises à de rudes catastrophes du fait d’un système économique destructeur et inadapté.
À côté de cette critique du récit du Progrès, la cli-fi s’en prend à un autre récit, naissant celui-ci : le récit d’une écologie du consensus.
La science-fiction peut ainsi poser la question du « et si ? », question qui peut s’avérer extrêmement fertile.
L’auteur de Hors des décombres du monde – Ecologie, science-fiction et éthique du futur, complète cette idée de laboratoire politique dans un article publié dans Raisons politiques : « Par touches plus ou moins appuyées, elles (les œuvres de science-fiction) proposent aussi des visions du futur. Il n’est pas question de les prendre pour des prédictions ou des prophéties. Il s’agit plutôt de considérer que la science-fiction est aussi une manière de poser des hypothèses. Et surtout des hypothèses audacieuses ! ». Il souligne donc ici le « potentiel heuristique de la science-fiction » qui peut se permettre d’explorer des champs que la recherche ne peut pas investir. La science-fiction peut ainsi poser la question du « et si ? », question qui peut s’avérer extrêmement fertile. A la façon des philosophes qui étudient les sociétés à-travers un état de nature, les récits de science-fiction permettent des « expériences de pensée ». Or, poursuit-il, « les récits de science-fiction ont pour particularité d’installer des expériences de pensée comme déconstruction/reconstruction »[4].
Ainsi, c’est bien dans cette dernière caractéristique de déconstruction/reconstruction par la pensée que se trouve toute la force politique de la science-fiction et de la cli-fi. A elle désormais de s’en saisir pleinement afin de nous proposer de nouveaux récits porteurs de sens pour ne pas enfermer nos imaginaires dans un nouveau « TINA[5] apocalyptique ».
[1] Claire Perrin, « La sécheresse dans le roman américain de John Steinbeck à la « fiction climatique », thèse en cours de rédaction à l’université de Perpignan. [2] Pierre Versins, « Encyclopédie de l’utopie, des voyages extraordinaires et de la science fiction », Lausanne, L’Âge d’homme, 2000 [1972] [3] Ici, le terme « récit » sera synonyme de mythe définit par le Larousse comme étant un « Ensemble de croyances, de représentations idéalisées autour d’un personnage, d’un phénomène, d’un événement historique, d’une technique et qui leur donnent une force, une importance particulières » [4] L’Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) en 2014 a définit la géo-ingénierie comme « l’ensemble des techniques et pratiques mises en œuvre ou projetées dans une visée corrective à grande échelle d’effets de la pression anthropique sur l’environnement » Collectif, « Atelier de Réflexion Prospective REAGIR – Réflexion systémique sur les enjeux et méthodes de la géo-ingénierie de l’environnement », ANR et CNRS, mai 2014, http://minh.haduong.com/files/Boucher.ea-2014-RapportFinalREAGIR.pdf [5]There Is No Alternative, est un slogan politique souvent attribué à Margaret Thatcher qu’il n’y a pas d’alternative au capitalisme, à l’extension du marché et la mondialisation.
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