Rewriting the future: How are individual and collective processes of agency and resistance negotiated through writing climate fiction?

Abstract

In 2022, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned once again of the severe environmental changes humanity should expect to experience over the following decades. As a counter-power to dystopian narratives brought forward by scientific reports and the news, a group of committed individuals strives to find solace in creativity. Following the lived experiences of writers of climate fiction, this digital ethnographic research aims to show how individuals and communities negotiate their feelings of eco-anxiety by engaging with hopeful narratives of the future. Through the operationalisation of an analytical framework which queries how processes of agency and resistance are negotiated within climate fiction in reaction to the current climate crisis, this study will interpret the reality of trying to change the system through the power of the imagination.