‘Wild Possibility’: American Literatures, Climate Change, and Hope in the Anthropocene: Part 1

McMahon, Wendy and Tillett, Rebecca (2024) ‘Wild Possibility’: American Literatures, Climate Change, and Hope in the Anthropocene: Part 1. Comparative American Studies, 21 (3-4). pp. 147-154. ISSN 1477-5700

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Abstract

This special issue of Comparative American Studies explores the literatures of the American hemisphere and their engagement with Anthropogenic climate change. The complex and contentious histories, geopolitics, and interrelated histories of colonial domination, oppression, dispossession, and dislocation of the American hemisphere have resulted in commonalities of experience among oppressed communities and cultures. In the twenty-first century, the historically uneven distribution of resources has resulted in a further commonality of experience: the environmental injustices and increasing inequalities emerging from the climate crisis and its uneven impacts. The twenty-first century has also witnessed a hemispheric boom in writing concerned with climate change which, we contend, represents a rich site for the ‘wild possibility’ of hope in times that can feel hopeless. These writings, while locally and culturally specific, speak across borders of all kinds to offer ways of thinking and acting in the face of climate crisis. This special issue of Comparative American Studies makes an important intervention into the field of climate and narrative, focusing not on dystopia and apocalypse but instead on hope. The literary texts explored in this special issue allow us to imagine a liveable future, where imagined possibilities become sites of social critique and potential transformations.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Published online: 15 May 2025
Uncontrolled Keywords: hope, climate fiction, climate emergency,literatures of the americas, climate and narrative,the americas, american literatures,cultural studies,sociology and political science,arts and humanities(all) ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3316
Faculty \ School: University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Politics, Philosophy and Area Studies
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Area Studies
Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > American Studies
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 08 Jul 2025 14:30
Last Modified: 08 Jul 2025 14:30
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/99868
DOI: 10.1080/14775700.2025.2493440

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