From Safe Havens to Monstrous Worlds: The 'Child' in Narratives of Environmental Collapse
Children are widely used as emotive symbols of our shared ecological future, evoking concerns for the next generation as well as the philosophical stakes and challenges of politically addressing climate change. The 'child' as redeemer anchors the dream of transforming and healing the troub...
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ftyorkuniv:oai:yorkspace.library.yorku.ca:10315/35529 2023-05-15T16:55:22+02:00 From Safe Havens to Monstrous Worlds: The 'Child' in Narratives of Environmental Collapse Maclear, Kyo Iona Paolantonio, Mario Di Alsop, Steve 2018-11-21T13:47:46Z application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10315/35529 en eng http://hdl.handle.net/10315/35529 Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests. Film studies Climate change Climate culture Environmental humanities Environmental politics Narrative modes Reproductive futurism The child Sentimental humanism Eco-criticism Queer theory Black studies Indigenous resistance Anthropocene Care politics Care ethics Cli-fi Narrative Storytelling Climate justice Intersectionality Slow violence Electronic Thesis or Dissertation 2018 ftyorkuniv 2022-08-22T13:02:16Z Children are widely used as emotive symbols of our shared ecological future, evoking concerns for the next generation as well as the philosophical stakes and challenges of politically addressing climate change. The 'child' as redeemer anchors the dream of transforming and healing the troubled world and functions as a beacon against the foreclosure of human history. My doctoral study examines the cultural ubiquity of the child redeemer figure in contemporary Western narratives of environmental collapse. Literature and film serve as objects for a theoretical investigation that is informed by post-colonial, critical post-humanist and ecocritical conceptions of childhood, nature and narrative. Following the work of other scholars of childhood and futurity (Kathryn Bond Stockton, Jack Halberstam, Mari Ruti, Jos Esteban Muoz, Claudia Castaeda), I ask how we, as adults, might respond to children in a manner that does not reproduce the old idea of childhood innocence nor allow the adults flight of fantasy into redemption or leave the 'child' to his/her own devices. Can the 'child' exceed his/her metonymic function? What are the possibilities of delaminating the climate change story from the imperatives of a redemptive and sentimental humanism? Specifically, my project addresses the fiction of universality, which continues to thrive in the hothouse of childrens culture and education. Moving from Clio Barnards feature film The Selfish Giant (2013) to Zacharias Kunuk/Ian Mauros documentary Qapirangajuq: Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change (2010), each of the four chapters in this dissertation is concerned with dramatizing the limits of heroic environmental storytelling modes, which tend to emphasize the individual in isolation and thereby threaten the fragile, collective, slow labor of forging a common world and a post-carbon future. Heroic reifications and fairy-tale endings may offer consolation, I propose, but they are inadequate to address the social, structural, and ecological crises we currently, and unequally, face ... Thesis inuit York University, Toronto: YorkSpace |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
York University, Toronto: YorkSpace |
op_collection_id |
ftyorkuniv |
language |
English |
topic |
Film studies Climate change Climate culture Environmental humanities Environmental politics Narrative modes Reproductive futurism The child Sentimental humanism Eco-criticism Queer theory Black studies Indigenous resistance Anthropocene Care politics Care ethics Cli-fi Narrative Storytelling Climate justice Intersectionality Slow violence |
spellingShingle |
Film studies Climate change Climate culture Environmental humanities Environmental politics Narrative modes Reproductive futurism The child Sentimental humanism Eco-criticism Queer theory Black studies Indigenous resistance Anthropocene Care politics Care ethics Cli-fi Narrative Storytelling Climate justice Intersectionality Slow violence Maclear, Kyo Iona From Safe Havens to Monstrous Worlds: The 'Child' in Narratives of Environmental Collapse |
topic_facet |
Film studies Climate change Climate culture Environmental humanities Environmental politics Narrative modes Reproductive futurism The child Sentimental humanism Eco-criticism Queer theory Black studies Indigenous resistance Anthropocene Care politics Care ethics Cli-fi Narrative Storytelling Climate justice Intersectionality Slow violence |
description |
Children are widely used as emotive symbols of our shared ecological future, evoking concerns for the next generation as well as the philosophical stakes and challenges of politically addressing climate change. The 'child' as redeemer anchors the dream of transforming and healing the troubled world and functions as a beacon against the foreclosure of human history. My doctoral study examines the cultural ubiquity of the child redeemer figure in contemporary Western narratives of environmental collapse. Literature and film serve as objects for a theoretical investigation that is informed by post-colonial, critical post-humanist and ecocritical conceptions of childhood, nature and narrative. Following the work of other scholars of childhood and futurity (Kathryn Bond Stockton, Jack Halberstam, Mari Ruti, Jos Esteban Muoz, Claudia Castaeda), I ask how we, as adults, might respond to children in a manner that does not reproduce the old idea of childhood innocence nor allow the adults flight of fantasy into redemption or leave the 'child' to his/her own devices. Can the 'child' exceed his/her metonymic function? What are the possibilities of delaminating the climate change story from the imperatives of a redemptive and sentimental humanism? Specifically, my project addresses the fiction of universality, which continues to thrive in the hothouse of childrens culture and education. Moving from Clio Barnards feature film The Selfish Giant (2013) to Zacharias Kunuk/Ian Mauros documentary Qapirangajuq: Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change (2010), each of the four chapters in this dissertation is concerned with dramatizing the limits of heroic environmental storytelling modes, which tend to emphasize the individual in isolation and thereby threaten the fragile, collective, slow labor of forging a common world and a post-carbon future. Heroic reifications and fairy-tale endings may offer consolation, I propose, but they are inadequate to address the social, structural, and ecological crises we currently, and unequally, face ... |
author2 |
Paolantonio, Mario Di Alsop, Steve |
format |
Thesis |
author |
Maclear, Kyo Iona |
author_facet |
Maclear, Kyo Iona |
author_sort |
Maclear, Kyo Iona |
title |
From Safe Havens to Monstrous Worlds: The 'Child' in Narratives of Environmental Collapse |
title_short |
From Safe Havens to Monstrous Worlds: The 'Child' in Narratives of Environmental Collapse |
title_full |
From Safe Havens to Monstrous Worlds: The 'Child' in Narratives of Environmental Collapse |
title_fullStr |
From Safe Havens to Monstrous Worlds: The 'Child' in Narratives of Environmental Collapse |
title_full_unstemmed |
From Safe Havens to Monstrous Worlds: The 'Child' in Narratives of Environmental Collapse |
title_sort |
from safe havens to monstrous worlds: the 'child' in narratives of environmental collapse |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10315/35529 |
genre |
inuit |
genre_facet |
inuit |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/10315/35529 |
op_rights |
Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests. |
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1766046364514385920 |