Dwelling in Crisis: How to Write Climate Fiction (Artistic Research)

We live in precarious times, when the ever-accelerating environmental emergency has long become an undeniable fact of our daily existence. This ubiquitous crisis carries the sense of apocalypse as well as the potential to re-think our present and to re-tell our future. Above all, it compels us, as human beings, to adapt.

In this seminar, we will explore the notion of "crisis" from three angles:

1) Creative writing exercises will offer inspiration on how to articulate experiences of "dwelling in crisis" in anticipation of an apocalyptic ending and/or the potential for more sustainable futures. By the end of this seminar, students will have written a full short story (revised draft).

2) As literary example, T.C. Boyle's most recent novel Blue Skies articulates crisis both on the global scale of climate change and in the localised experiences of its three main characters' personal catastrophes. Our critical reading sessions will explore this work for its potential to "write climate fiction" in our contemporary day and age.

3) As critical background, the cultural-theoretical essays in Frederick Buell's "From apocalypse to way of life: environmental crisis in the American century" compile pertinent and concise insights into contemporary experiences of "dwelling in crisis". Our analytical reading sessions will explore ways and means of bringing together environmental, societal and political, as well as cultural experiences of crisis.