Climate fiction helps us think about climate change
Climate fiction, literature in which climate change plays a central role, is becoming increasingly popular. Whereas a few years ago there was hardly any climate fiction in Dutch literature, a whole series of books have appeared recently and, according to Professor of Modern Dutch Literature Geert Buelens, a whole series is still to come. He spoke to and about this relatively new literary genre.
From hopelessness to hope
With forest fires, floods and other climate-related disasters, there is a lot of attention in the media for climate change this summer. You may wonder whether people are waiting for fictional stories on this topic, in addition to reporting on all the doom and gloom that climate change brings. According to Buelens, literature offers a way to give shape to the emotions that climate change evokes. It can also help us to visualise a future that is more hopeful than the present. "It is conceivable to use literature to paint a picture of a world that is much more sustainable than the one we know today," Buelens says. "We may find that world so attractive that it is increasingly easy to imagine that we are going to turn our lives around in order to arrive at that sustainable world."
Less and less far-fetched
Even before the term climate fiction emerged, Dutch literature was already writing about the relationship between humans and the planet. But what distinguishes more recent literature is the plausibility of the picture being painted. Where authors first struggled with the question of how to write about climate change in a realistic way, the reality of climate change now overshadows what could be imagined at the time. "The writer's imagination is now challenged by nature," says Buelens. "In a way, this gives the writer more freedom: everything becomes less and less far-fetched."