Putting the Earth to Use: Reading Resources in the End Times (Through Science Fiction)

Abstract

This chapter examine how the medium of literature can mediate and problematize resource scarcity in the Anthropocene. First the chapter asks how we might start to ‘read resources’ in the academic field in which ‘reading’ is preeminent, namely literary studies. As it has been the case with almost all disciplines, the Anthropocene has severely challenged some of the fundamental ways in which literary studies are conducted. Accordingly, the chapter discusses specific genres of literature (primarily science fiction and postapocalyptic fiction) in order to examine why certain genres of literature are apparently more apt to take up questions of anthropogenic change than others. Finally, the chapter provides an example of how one could potentially ‘read for resources’ in American science fiction writer Paolo Bacigalupi’s novel The Windup Girl (2009) and concludes on the question of how (if at all) literature and literary studies can offer insights into the shifting parameters of a rapidly changing world beyond the specifics of literary texts.