BA Thesis: Literature to the Rescue

“Fiction can capture the human element and the unique and transform the abstract climate crisis into a personal and physical problem.” Photo/Eydís María Ólafsdóttir

Translation: Sindri Snær Jónsson

Many people struggle to grasp the usefulness of studying literature, and with the climate crisis looming over us, even die-hard humanities fans have a hard time realizing the point of diving deep into the Aeneid or Ulysses. When I started writing my BA thesis last spring, I felt my own powerlessness to address climate change, and therefore the pointlessness of everyday life became very clear to me. What does a student of literature do when they are plagued by anxiety about climate change? Why, they embark on a desperate search for a bit of hope for the future. That is why I decided to dedicate my BA thesis to the relationship between climate change and literature and try to determine whether there is even a speck of hope to be found. 

Science or art?

People usually assume that tackling the climate crisis is the responsibility of science rather than the arts, and the natural sciences are, without a doubt, instrumental in the fight. However, they are not necessarily the best means of triggering the changes that need to take place in society. The demand that science should provide explicit answers to the crisis prevents scientists from educating the public on climate change. Scientists' calculations and models, which appear in reports and other scholarly texts, don't reach the general public, so there’s a risk that the problem could be swept under the rug. Even those who are convinced of the existence of climate change struggle to fully understand its effects as time goes on. That is why literature can be relevant to the climate discussion; literature can present the problem to the public in a way that science cannot. 

Communicating speculation

There are three factors that make literature a useful means of discussing climate change. The first is its ability to talk about the theoretical. To a certain extent, scientific disciplines that deal with climate issues involve speculating about the future and drawing a picture of the world that might come to be in the near or distant future. Literature has the advantage of being able to efficiently present theories about the future to the public and make those ideas accessible, whereas science is built on pure facts. Speculation and predictions, which reduce the credibility of scientific discourse in the eyes of the public, are perfectly suited to novels.

The human element

Another aspect of fiction that makes it a useful medium is its ability to address the cultural, social, and psychological changes that result from climate change. Climate change is not just a problem for nature, but for all of humanity, and the environment isn’t the only thing undergoing changes. Society as we know it will change in ways that no one can predict. Global warming will affect the political landscape and social environment no less than it will affect nature. Literary texts can describe these changes in a much more accessible way than scholarly texts. Fiction can capture the human element and the unique and transform the abstract climate crisis into a personal and physical problem. 

A big-picture view of a complex phenomenon

The third reason that literature is a useful tool for addressing climate change is its ability to explain a complex phenomenon that is difficult to grasp. It can, in fact, be hard to understand a phenomenon on par with climate change, something that spans such a long time and affects all life on earth. Literature is especially useful when explaining such a concept. Fiction writers can bring together the past and the future in an accessible way and paint a picture of the world as a consistent whole, and in doing so, they can communicate this complex phenomenon to their readers. 

The power to shape our thinking

There is, of course, reason to doubt that novels about climate change can have a direct effect on readers, open their eyes to the problem at hand, and stir within them the anxiety that is needed for them to understand just how dire the situation is. However, humanity must do everything in its power to fight against climate change and make use of the tools that we have at our disposal. Because of these three aspects of literature - its ability to communicate speculation about the future and the human and social elements of climate change, and its ability to bring together past, future, and the world as a whole, trusting the power of fiction may well be worth a shot. The problem cannot wait any longer; we must take action. Art has an important role to play as a powerful force that can shape our thinking, so it's valid to say that artists’ responsibility to respond to the issues of the day and help shape the future has never before been as important as it is today. We need climate literature, and we need it now.

Ragnheiður completed a BA in literature at the University of Iceland last spring with a thesis on climate literature, titled "From Denial to Understanding" ("Frá afneitun til þekkingar"). She is now a graduate student in the same subject at the University of Copenhagen.