Danish cli-fi researcher Gregers Andersen on ''climate change fiction'': "it plays a very significant role"
SEE BIO HERE:
Selected monographs
Climate Fiction and Cultural Analysis. A New Perspective on Life in the Anthropocene. Routledge, 2019.
An Interview by Swedish professor Karolina Bergström with Danish professor Gregers Andersen [in Swedish in Sweden]
Danish researcher Dr Professor Gregers Andersen believes that climate fiction helps us to think about the future.
''We need to be aware of how short a time we actually have,'' he says in this interview
''Climate fiction'' -- also dubbed cli-fi -- can give us the opportunity to not only reflect on what it's like to live in a climate-collapsed world, but also make us realize the importance of changing to a more climate-friendly way of life. Danish cultural maven Gregers Andersen has traced the roots of the genre all the way back to antiquity.
''We need to be aware of how little time we actually have in order to prevent a climate collapse. Here, climate fiction plays a significant role, as it places its characters in a world where the climate collapse has already occurred and shows the often difficult-to-handle living conditions in this world,'' says Gregers Andersen.
He is a researcher in humanities environmental research at Stockholm University, as well as a writer with assignments for, among others, the Danish newspaper Politiken. Earlier this year, Gregers Andersen published the book "Climate fiction and cultural analysis: A new perspective on life in the Anthropocene", which is a revised and translated version of his doctoral dissertation and where he deals with contemporary literary and cinematic climate fiction, ie fiction as embodies the effects of global warming. The question we all need to ask ourselves, Andersen thinks, is what it means to be human in a climate-collapsed world and what our communities may look like after the collapse. Here, climate fiction, or cli-fi, as the genre is called in English, can help us reflect on these issues.
QUESTION: Why has there been so little research in Europe about climate fiction so far, do you think?
GREGERS: That is a good question. When I started my doctoral dissertation, there were probably only a handful in the whole world who were researching the subject. But since then, more researchers and some books have been added to the theme, which I myself believe is because we have gained a completely different awareness of global warming and, above all, its effects.
QUESTION: Many cli-fi films can be very dystopian with their often elaborately depicted disaster scenarios. Can climate fiction alert us too much, do you think?
GREGERS: I think it's good that we get worried and take actions like ''Fridays for the Future,'' which in turn can awaken even more, and good cli-fi can do just that. At the same time, it is important to preserve hope even if we face a comprehensive climate threat, and are reminded that we can actually prevent many fatal climate effects only if we manage to halve CO2 emissions globally every decade until we succeed in becoming carbon neutral in 2050.
In his research, Gregers Andersen addresses 5 basic conceptions of climate fiction, all with roots in our traditional narratives. In the notion of "Judgment", nature, through disasters, forces mankind back to its original humility, as in many disaster films on the theme, while "The loss of the wilderness" touches on how, by causing global warming, we also destroy our untouched nature. Instead, in the more climate-skeptical "Conspiracy", it is about how politicians and researchers try to fabricate a climate threat to get through their own agendas, or as in Michael Crichton's 2004 cli-fi novel "State of Fear" where a group of environmental activists try to get society through various rigged disasters. to believe in the global warming threat to humanity. The conceptual "sphere" depicts how humanity, after a climate collapse, is forced to construct new artificial worlds to survive, while "The Social Collapse" derives from the Hebrew Bible story of the ''Tower of Babel'', where a so-called Jewish deity called YAHWEH [''God''] punished the Hebrew people for their attempts to build a tower all the way to heaven by give them different languages and thus make all communication impossible. This can be compared to modern stories where we no longer communicate with each other through language but through violence, Andersen says.
''Already in ancient times people were affected by natural disasters, and their way of creating a sense of the horrors that happened was to find gods who let these things happen. Now we see instead a humanity that punishes itself with disasters, and which has taken over the power previously attributed to various gods. One of the qualities of good cli-fi is that it can, in fictional form, reproduce nature's former power so that we can in turn become humble. For example, the 2004 movie "The Day after Tomorrow", which is a good example of the "Domen" scenario and where the disasters that hit the globe appear almost monstrous,'' says Gregers Andersen.
''Firstly, interpersonal trust has disappeared, and you can basically be attacked at any time. In addition, the weather may have changed completely in character, with constant rain or extreme heat, and animals and plants may have acquired new, monstrous properties. When you also can't trust nature, it also contributes to a feeling of Das unheimliche,'' says Gregers Andersen.
NOTE: The uncanny is the psychological experience of something as strangely familiar, rather than simply mysterious.[1] It may describe incidents where a familiar thing or event is encountered in an unsettling, eerie, or taboo context.[2][3]
Sigmund Freud set out the concept of the uncanny in his 1919 essay Das Unheimliche, which explores the eeriness of dolls and waxworks.[4] For Freud, the uncanny locates the strangeness in the ordinary.[3][5] Expanding on the idea, psychoanalytic theorist Jacques Lacan wrote that the uncanny places us "in the field where we do not know how to distinguish bad and good, pleasure from displeasure", resulting in an irreducible anxiety that gestures to the Real.[citation needed] The concept has since been taken up by a variety of thinkers and theorists such as roboticist Masahiro Mori's uncanny valley[6] and Julia Kristeva's concept of abjection.[citation needed]
At the other end of the climate-fictitious spectrum is the more technology-oriented scenario "The Sphere", with examples such as the movie "Elysium" set in a climate-collapsed future where the well-off live at well-equipped space stations while the poor are allowed to live on a climate-ravaged and overcrowded globe.
Gregers Andersen points out how similar fictitious scenarios, where people are forced to construct their own worlds in order to survive the climate collapse, can ask important questions about who is actually entitled to similar privileges for their survival in a future extreme situation, and allows us to reflect on our own about the social construction of future societies.
''At the same time, there is a danger when climate fiction becomes too technology-optimistic and presents technology as a simple solution that allows us to continue our lives as if nothing had happened, which is often advocated by the political right,'' says Gregers Andersen.
He takes on American author Kim Stanley Robinson's "Science in the Capital" trilogy as an example of a more technology-critical perspective on an upcoming climate change. In the books, where in the near future the United States is affected by storms and floods caused by global warming, we get to follow a number of scientists and politicians in the city of Washington DC and how they deal with the effects of anthropogenic climate change.
Stan Robinson addresses how, in order to survive climate change, we must also make a radical shift in political control. Today, global warming is an integral part of our lifestyle, which is why we need a radical change in this. For example, one of the main characters of the books settles in the forest to get closer to the animals and plants. Today, many live in cities, which alienate us from nature, which in turn makes it easier for us to destroy it.
QUESTION: Do you experience any difference in the Danish climate debate compared to the Swedish one?
GREGERS: In fact, I have written a book about why it is so difficult for the Danes to tackle the climate crisis, titled "Grænseløshedens culture" that came out in 2016. As far as the Swedish debate is concerned, I do not have enough transparency to be able to comment on it, but the problem in Denmark is that society has not started to act seriously to prevent a climate crisis. They talk about renewable energy and new technology, but don't see how we actually have to change our whole way of life. Economic growth is simply not compatible with a sustainable future.
Extra info:
So Hot Right Now: Has Climate Change Created A New Literary Genre?
The term "cli-fi" first came into broad popular use on April 20, 2013 when the NPR radio network in the USA did a five-minute radio segment produced by freelance radio reporter Angela Evancie on the national network's ''Weekend Edition Saturday''.... after receiving an emailed press release about cli-fi from Dan Bloom's PR website ....to describe novels and movies that deal with man-made climate change, and historically, there have been any number of literary works that dealt with climate change in earlier times as well. A climate activist of the literary kind, Dan Bloom, a 1971 Tufts University literature major, has been an influential figure in the development of "cli-fi" as a distinct genre since 2011. He coined the term in 2011, he started tweeting about it daily in 2012 and he lobbied editors at major newspapers and websites to assign reporters to cover the new genre's rise, including Gregers Andersen, with success with editors at the New York Times, The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, the BBC and the the wire services of the Associated Press and Reuters.
Amy Brady's monthly ''cli-fi trends'' literary column in the Chicago Review of Books, a column that Dan helped launch in 2016, after Amy contacted him with a list of questions about who he was, how he got started with cli-fi and what was egging him on to be so passionate about this PR mission he had taken on in retirement, with her first "Burning Worlds" column appearing in the Chicago Review of Books in early 2017 with an interview with Dan Bloom.
* The Cli-Fi Report, edited by Dan Bloom since 2011 at cli-fi.net
* Climate fiction, or as the genre is also called, cli-fi, is literature and film depictions that deal with global warming and its consequences.
* The term cli-fi was first coined and promoted worldwide in 2011 by literary journalist Dan Bloom in Taiwan and it made its first appearace in USA media on an NPR radio broadcast produced by Angela Evancie. NOTE: The term "cli-fi" first came into broad popular use on April 20, 2013 when the NPR radio network in the USA did a five-minute radio segment produced by freelance radio reporter Angela Evancie on the national network's ''Weekend Edition Saturday'' [after hearing from Dan Bloom by email] to describe novels and movies that deal with man-made climate change, and historically, there have been any number of literary works that dealt with climate change in earlier times as well. A climate activist of the literary kind, Dan Bloom, a 1971 Tufts literature major, has been an influential figure in the development of "cli-fi" as a distinct genre. He coined the term in 2011, he started tweeting about it daily in 2012 and he lobbied editors at major newspapers and websites to assign reporters to cover the new genre's rise, with some success with editors at the New York Times, The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, the BBC and the the wire services of the Associated Press and Reuters.
LINK:
https://chireviewofbooks.com/2017/02/08/the-man-who-coined-cli-fi-has-some-reading-suggestions-for-you/
* Jules Verne depicts climate change as a result of human influence in the novel "Barbicane & co", created by shaking the Earth's axis to create an Arctic region with a habitable climate.
Gregers Andersen's 3 best reading cli-fi tips:
The Wall
John Lanchester (2019)
Placed in the near future where a wall was built around the UK to prevent climate refugees from entering. A reminder of the importance of maintaining our empathy even during a climate collapse, and contains many similarities to what is actually happening today.
Clade
James Bradley (2015) and '' GHOST SPECIES '' a novel (May 2020)
Interesting Australian cli-fi novel in 2015 whose action spans several generations and can therefore describe different phases of global warming. Reflects, among other things, the issue of children in the light of the climate crisis, when a climate scientist and future father at the beginning of the book worries about the threatened world he will soon have a child.
The Ice Lovers
Jean McNeill (2009)
Describes how a trip to Antarctica completely changes a scientist's life when she makes contact with the wilderness and seriously experiences her suffering. Beautiful about nature's biodiversity and the importance of it.
NOTES:
Gregers is a Danish national who received a doctoral degree in arts and cultural studies from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark 2014 and held a position as a postdoctoral fellow at the same institution from 2014 to 2016. As a postdoctoral fellow in environmental humanities in Sweden now, his current position is part of Stockholm University's initiative Environmental Research in the Human Sciences area.
Han forskar om klimatfiktion: "Spelar en betydande roll"
INTERVIEW BY Karolina Bergström
Extra information:
* The Cli-Fi Report, edited by Dan Bloom since 2011 at cli-fi.net (Dan first contacted Gregers by email in 2013 but
never heard back from him. and never received any replies to his multiple emails to Gregers for reasons Gregers has never explained or answered. Hmm.)
never heard back from him. and never received any replies to his multiple emails to Gregers for reasons Gregers has never explained or answered. Hmm.)
* Klimatfiktion, eller som genren också kallas, cli-fi, är litteratur och filmskildringar som hanterar den globala uppvärmningen och dess konsekvenser.
* Angela Evancie / amerikanska radiokanalen NPR, April 20, 2013 [SEE LINK BELOW:]
* Jules Verne skildrar klimatförändringar till följd av mänsklig påverkan i romanen "Barbicane & co", skapat av att jordens axel ruckas för att göra skapa en arktisk region med ett beboeligt klimat.
Gregers Andersens tre bästa cli-fi-tips:
3 cli-fi recs by Gregers:
The Wall
John Lanchester (2019)
Utspelar sig i en nära framtid där man byggt en mur kring Storbritannien för att hindra klimatflyktingar från att komma in. En påminnelse om vikten om att behålla vår empati även under en klimatkollaps, och innehåller många likheter med det som faktiskt händer i dag.
Clade
James Bradley (2015) and ''GHOST SPECIES'' a novel (May 2020)
Intressant australiensisk cli-fi vars handling sträcker sig över flera generationer, och som därför kan beskriva olika faser av den globala uppvärmningen. Speglar bland annat barnfrågan i skenet av klimatkrisen, när en klimatforskare och blivande pappa i bokens inledning oroar sig över den hotade värld han snart kommer att sätta ett barn till.
The Ice Lovers
Jean McNeill (2009)
Beskriver hur en resa till Antarktis helt förändrar en forskares liv, när hon får kontakt med vildmarken och på allvar upplever dess lidande. Vackert om naturens biodiversitet och vikten av den.
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