'This Is The Hell That I Have Heard Of' : Some Dialectical Images in Fossil Fuel Fiction
(2017) In Forum for Modern Language Studies 53(2). p.121-141- Abstract
How can the realities of global warming be made visible in literary texts? After the rise of 'cli-fi', it might be time to return to a trove of literature written long before the discoveries of climate science: fiction about fossil fuels. It is filled with premonitions of disasters, such as extreme heat and terrible storms. Focusing on two texts - Ghassan Kanafani's Men in the Sun and Joseph Conrad's Typhoon - this essay makes a case for developing 'dialectical images', in Walter Benjamin's sense of the term, from fossil fuel fiction. Such images might contribute to a critical understanding of our current epoch, fracturing the narrative of the human species as a united entity ascending to biospheric dominance in the Anthropocene. The... (More)
How can the realities of global warming be made visible in literary texts? After the rise of 'cli-fi', it might be time to return to a trove of literature written long before the discoveries of climate science: fiction about fossil fuels. It is filled with premonitions of disasters, such as extreme heat and terrible storms. Focusing on two texts - Ghassan Kanafani's Men in the Sun and Joseph Conrad's Typhoon - this essay makes a case for developing 'dialectical images', in Walter Benjamin's sense of the term, from fossil fuel fiction. Such images might contribute to a critical understanding of our current epoch, fracturing the narrative of the human species as a united entity ascending to biospheric dominance in the Anthropocene. The miseries of global warming have been in preparation for a long time. Some have felt the heat from the start.
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- author
- Malm, Andreas LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2017-04-11
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Dialectical image, Ecocriticism, Fossil fuel fiction, Ghassan Kanafani, Global warming, Joseph Conrad, Material allegory, Walter Benjamin
- in
- Forum for Modern Language Studies
- volume
- 53
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 21 pages
- publisher
- Oxford University Press
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85027403100
- wos:000400998700001
- scopus:85027403100
- ISSN
- 0015-8518
- DOI
- 10.1093/fmls/cqw090
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 7864e0e7-d7f5-49c5-abef-ca61b8fa6b5e
- date added to LUP
- 2017-05-24 12:39:10
- date last changed
- 2024-08-04 21:43:56
@article{7864e0e7-d7f5-49c5-abef-ca61b8fa6b5e,
abstract = {{<p>How can the realities of global warming be made visible in literary texts? After the rise of 'cli-fi', it might be time to return to a trove of literature written long before the discoveries of climate science: fiction about fossil fuels. It is filled with premonitions of disasters, such as extreme heat and terrible storms. Focusing on two texts - Ghassan Kanafani's Men in the Sun and Joseph Conrad's Typhoon - this essay makes a case for developing 'dialectical images', in Walter Benjamin's sense of the term, from fossil fuel fiction. Such images might contribute to a critical understanding of our current epoch, fracturing the narrative of the human species as a united entity ascending to biospheric dominance in the Anthropocene. The miseries of global warming have been in preparation for a long time. Some have felt the heat from the start.</p>}},
author = {{Malm, Andreas}},
issn = {{0015-8518}},
keywords = {{Dialectical image; Ecocriticism; Fossil fuel fiction; Ghassan Kanafani; Global warming; Joseph Conrad; Material allegory; Walter Benjamin}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{04}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{121--141}},
publisher = {{Oxford University Press}},
series = {{Forum for Modern Language Studies}},
title = {{'This Is The Hell That I Have Heard Of' : Some Dialectical Images in Fossil Fuel Fiction}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqw090}},
doi = {{10.1093/fmls/cqw090}},
volume = {{53}},
year = {{2017}},
}