FICTION AND THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY: THE MINISTRY FOR THE FUTURE BY KIM STANLEY ROBINSON

Resumen

How can fiction help us think about climate change? How can it spur us to action, and what kind of ethics does fiction presuppose? What expectations can we reasonably have of fictional texts? I will address these questions through a reading of The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, a leading figure in contemporary science fiction/speculative fiction. In particular, I will detail the articulation of economic issues in the novel and examine how their representation in fiction resonates with reality.