A Dissonant Mind in a Dissonant Body: Allegories of Climate Change Denial in McEwanʼs Novel Solar (2010)

Abstract

Solar, Ian McEwan’s first novel about climate change, employs a comic tone that departs from most climate fictions’ apocalyptic, dystopian and elegiac inspirations. Some critics saw in this innovative approach a lack of seriousness (Garrard 2013) and a reluctance to depict emotional engagement with the issue (Kerridge 2010), but some acknowledged that reading the novel as a satirical allegory allowed for a social critique of human nature and western societies (Traub 2018, Zamanek 2012). In this article, I argue that Solarʼs allegorical protagonist brings to light some tensions and contradictions at the heart of contemporary attitudes to climate change while avoiding the paralysing pessimistic tones of mainstream apocalyptic narratives. Set in the present, Solar reminds us that the correlation between daily lifeʼs short-term needs and their delayed impact on invisible, slow-developing climate change can be difficult to come to terms with. Astrid Bracke suggests that climate change is often met with what psychologists call “cognitive dissonance”: the inability to coordinate knowledge and action, leading to apathy and even denial (Bracke 2017). Few climate fictions have so far addressed denial, cognitive dissonance, psychic numbing and other self-protective psychological responses that come with climate change awareness. This article investigates to what extent, in Solar, allegory is used to expose these psychic states and their underlying causes, particularly thanks to the dissonant role of the protagonistʼs body and mind. If Solar seems at first glance to approach climate change too lightly, its allegorical form draws attention to crucial questions such as the psychological constraints that may hinder climate action.