Memory Carriers and Intergenerational Kinship in Indigenous Climate Change Fiction

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DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_article_15307
dc.title	Memory Carriers and Intergenerational Kinship in Indigenous Climate Change Fiction. Alexis Wright’s The Swan Book (2013) and Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves (2017)
dc.contributor.author	Botelho Teresa
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Venice University Press, Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari
dc.type	Research Article
dc.language.iso	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/riviste/english-literature/2023/10/memory-carriers-and-intergenerational-kinship-in-i/
dc.description.abstract	The concept of anthropogenic climate change, in its most simplistic interpretation, implies that all humanity is collectively responsible for the present threats to planetary sustainability. This unquestioned discourse of collective responsibility also facilitates frames of understanding that isolate older generations and burden them as a whole, blaming them for the construction of a life model that has led to the present crisis, a discourse challenged by postcolonial and environmental justice literature and in particular by Indigenous fiction. A discussion of two novels, The Swan Book (2013) by the Waanyi Australian writer Alexis Wright, and The Marrow Thieves (2017) by the Métis Canadian writer Cherie Dimaline, scrutinises how they create alternative frames presenting older adults in scenarios of environmental devastation as carriers of memory that are agents in the construction of the spirit of resilience and resistance of young characters.
dc.relation.ispartof	English Literature
dc.relation.ispartof	Vol. 10 \| December 2023
dc.issued	2024-02-06
dc.dateAccepted	2023-11-25
dc.dateSubmitted	2023-09-18
dc.identifier.issn
dc.identifier.eissn	2420-823X
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.identifier.doi	10.30687/EL/2420-823X/2023/10/001
dc.peer-review	yes
dc.subject	Climate Change Fiction
dc.subject	Dystopia
dc.subject	Environmental Justice
dc.subject	Indigenous Literature
dc.subject	Intergenerational Gap

Research Article
open access peer reviewed

Alexis Wright’s The Swan Book (2013) and Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves (2017)

Teresa Botelho Nova University of Lisbon, Portugal

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abstract

The concept of anthropogenic climate change, in its most simplistic interpretation, implies that all humanity is collectively responsible for the present threats to planetary sustainability. This unquestioned discourse of collective responsibility also facilitates frames of understanding that isolate older generations and burden them as a whole, blaming them for the construction of a life model that has led to the present crisis, a discourse challenged by postcolonial and environmental justice literature and in particular by Indigenous fiction. A discussion of two novels, The Swan Book (2013) by the Waanyi Australian writer Alexis Wright, and The Marrow Thieves (2017) by the Métis Canadian writer Cherie Dimaline, scrutinises how they create alternative frames presenting older adults in scenarios of environmental devastation as carriers of memory that are agents in the construction of the spirit of resilience and resistance of young characters.

Published

Feb. 6, 2024

Accepted

Nov. 25, 2023

Submitted

Sept. 18, 2023

Language

Keywords: Climate Change Fiction • Indigenous Literature • Intergenerational Gap • Dystopia • Environmental Justice

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/EL/2420-823X/2023/10/001

Copyright: © 2023 Teresa Botelho. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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