Decoding Cli-Fi Dynamics in Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behaviour

Ashna Francis

doi:10.24113/ijellh.v9i3.10961

Abstract

Flight Behaviouris an integration of many important issues that humanity faces today like climate change, global warming, species extinction, and the advent of the age of Anthropocene. The novel is set in rural Tennessee and it explores the reaction of a bible belt community to the arrival of millions of monarch butterflies on the mountains of their hometown. This astonishing phenomenon is branded as a miracle by the townsfolk but the arrival of a research team reveals the troubling truth behind the butterflies’ presence. They have been driven away from their usual Mexican winter grounds because of devastating mudslides and flooding that affected the area. Kingsolver, in simple words, expresses the alarming reality of how changing climate affects biodiversity and leads many species to the verge of extinction. She artfully links the monarch’s struggle for survival with the protagonist’s search for identity, independence and self-expression.

Highlights

Anthropogenic climate change is one of the defining challenges of the twenty first century
“Humanity has so far played the role of planetary killer, concerned only with its own short-term survival . . . The Anthropocene, one might say, has been an unintended consequence of human choices”(Chakrabarty 210)
Popularly abbreviated as Cli-fi, is a branch of literature that deals with the effects of climate change on human society

Summary

Introduction

Anthropogenic climate change is one of the defining challenges of the twenty first century. Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have altered the Earth's atmosphere, resulting in extreme weather changes and unpredictable climate. The Anthropogenic climate change that has impacted the Earth has affected our literature. Cli-fi novels mostly takes place in the near future and presents before us a planet that is ravaged by extreme climatic cataclysms.

Results

Conclusion