Women Navigating the Climate Catastrophe: Challenging Anthropocentrism in Selected Fiction

Abstract

This article explores how two authors represent female characters who engage with the impending climate catastrophe by exposing and challenging anthropocentrism, albeit in very different ways. The selected novels, Weather by Jenny Offill, and The Last Migration by Charlotte McConaghy, were published in 2020 and 2021 respectively. Both novels were met with significant critical acclaim and both announce their central authorial impetuses in their titles. Offill’s main character, Lizzie, lives a life of middle class privilege with her husband and young son in New York while McConaghy’s protagonist, Franny, has lost her husband and child and scrapes a living as she moves between Ireland, Australia and Greenland. I use a theoretical framework that can broadly be described as feminist ecocriticism as a lens for my analysis and I mobilise conceptual interventions by scholars working in a range of fields related to climate change and critical animal studies. I will explore how the female characters in my selected novels navigate the impending climate catastrophe and I will argue that scholars can gain insight into their experiences by paying close attention to how the authors challenge anthropocentrism in their representations of these experiences. In order to work towards staunching the damage human beings are doing to the natural world, we need to build interactions that honour, respect and affirm the lives of all inhabitants with whom we share the earth. The relationships I investigate in this article mostly fall far short of these goals and these failures can be traced back to the stubborn insistence or, at times, unquestioned assumption, that human beings have greater value than the rest of the world we inhabit. This inability to relate meaningfully and empathetically to the rest of the natural world allows humans to wreak the havoc that has resulted in the contemporary climate crisis. I will illustrate that the glimmers of hope that the texts do offer can be found in the instances where the human characters at least attempt respectful interactions with their nonhuman counterparts in ways that honour and affirm the value of their animal lives.

Opsomming

Hierdie artikel ondersoek hoe twee outeurs vroulike karakters uitbeeld wat op verskillende maniere met die dreigende klimaatkrisis omgaan, deur antroposentrisme te onthul en te betwis, al is dit op uiteenlopende maniere. Die gekose romans, Weather deur Jenny Offill, en The Last Migration deur Charlotte McConaghy, is onderskeidelik in 2020 en 2021 gepubliseer. Beide romans is met beduidende kritiese toejuiging begroet, en albei kondig hul sentrale ouktoriele dryfkrag in hul titels aan. Offill se hoofkarakter, Lizzie, lei 'n middelklas bevoorregte lewe saam met haar man en jong seun in New York. Daarteenoor het McConaghy se protagonis, Franny, haar man en kind verloor en kan net net aan die lewe  bly terwyl sy tussen Ierland, Australië en Groenland rondtrek. Ek gebruik 'n teoretiese raamwerk wat breedweg as feministiese ekokritiek beskryf kan word, as 'n lens vir my ontleding en ek mobiliseer konseptuele intervensies deur vakkundiges werksaam in 'n verskeidenheid vakrigtings wat met klimaatsverandering en kritiese dierestudie verband hou. Ek ondersoek hoe die vroulike karakters in my gekose romans die dreigende klimaatkatastrofe bestuur en ek voer aan dat vakkundiges insig in hul ervarings kan kry deur fyn op te let hoe die outeurs antroposentrisme betwis  in hul uitbeeldings van hierdie ervarings. In 'n poging om die skade wat die mens aan die sigbare wereld aanrig te stuit, moet ons bou aan interaksie waardeur die lewens van alle bewoners waarmee ons die aarde deel, geeer, gerespekteer en bekragtig word. Die verhoudings wat ons in hierdie artikel ondersoek, skiet meestal ver te kort van hierdie doelwitte, en sodanige mislukkings kan teruggevoer word tot die hardkoppige aandrang of, met tye, onbetwiste veronderstelling, dat mense groter waarde het as die res van die wereld wat ons bewoon. Hierdie onvermoe om betekenisvol en met empatie by die res van die sigbare wereld aansluiting te vind, laat mense verwoesting saai soos die wat tot die huidige klimaatskrisis gelei het. Ek sal illustreer dat die sprankies van hoop wat die tekste wel laat deurskemer, gevind kan word in die gevalle waar die menslike karakters ten minste probeer om respekvolle interaksie met hul niemenslike ewekniee te he, op maniere wat die waarde van hul dierelewens eer en bevestig.