Abstract
Literature that engages with the theme of anthropogenic climate change carries the potential of awakening the reader’s curiosity by creating a dimension in which the effects and impacts of the crisis are tangible. The urgency and unpredictability of climate change are articulated through reflections that combine societal, cultural and political issues associated to the phenomenon, hence encouraging a deeper understanding of the environmental crisis in today’s society. The article examines the novel EistTau by Ilija Trojanow to navigate the political and economic aspects of anthropogenic climate change. I reflect on the employment of fiction in finding ways to develop attentiveness to nature, whilst exposing how EisTau questions the power relations between culture, politics and economy, in a bid to influence the current state of affairs. I argue that the depiction of the effects of climate change and the melting of glaciers enable public agency, whilst encouraging the rethinking of the environmental crisis and the acknowledgment of its connection to capitalism and to the constant accumulation of goods. I observe how the exposure of the interconnectedness of climate change and capitalism encourages behavioural changes that lead to the adoption of alternative lifestyles that can halt the disastrous effects of climate change and prompts readers to develop a sense of care for the non-human world.
Highlights
I reflect on the employment of fiction in finding ways to develop attentiveness to nature, whilst exposing how EisTau questions the power relations between culture, politics and economy, in a bid to influence the current state of affairs
The elegiac tone used by the author exposes how EisTau mourns the destruction of the environment that has not yet occurred, but will be if the consumerist lifestyles dictated by capitalism and consumerism are not being withheld
EisTau engages with the non-literary context of climate change and questions the power relations between culture, politics and economy, in a bid to influence the current state of affairs
Summary
As we negotiate the anxieties and fears surrounding climate change, literature can play an important role. Trojanow’s ability to combine different aspects of the environmental crisis encourages deeper reflections on the effects of climate change and on the relationship between humanity and nature. The information contained in these chapters aid readers to fill the empty gaps left by Zeno’s journal about the rescue of the stranded people, as well as the fate of the cruise ship and Zeno himself Their rhythm is faster, slogans such as ‘do your looting while supplies last’ (Trojanow, 2016: 71) and statements such as ‘he who destroys nature is killing God’ (Ibid: 37) confer the text a negative and obscure tone, since they refer to the appropriation of someone else’s goods during catastrophes or wars in the case of ‘looting’ or comparing the exploitation of nature with the murder of God. The novel defined roman à these (Goodbody, 2013) for its ability to offer a commentary on modern society, speaks to what Hans Adler and Sonja Klocke describe as ‘engaged literature’: a debatably inferior offspring of high literature that exposes the controversial ties between society and literature (2019: 1). The Latin term stresses the fact that the Antarctic is still a pristine and wild country, unspoiled by human activity, and needs to be safeguarded from humanity’s desire to expand, conquer and draw capitalist advantage from its exploitation
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