Conclusion: Climate Change Fiction and the Introduction of New Genres in Environmental Crisis Discourse

Abstract

By comparing the climate change fictions analyzed in her book, Antonia Mehnert sheds light on their underlying social projections, which is of importance especially in relation to the national context in which these narratives emerge. The conclusion thereby provides insight into what socio-political tendencies are criticized and which ones endorsed. It also offers final thoughts on the characteristics in content and form of climate change fiction as an emergent new genre and particularly focuses on the shortcomings of apocalypse in narrating climate change. Mehnert concludes that as writers come up with innovative narrative means to overcome the elusiveness and representational complexity of climate change, their works also constitute an insightful cultural repertoire valuable for discussion in the environmental humanities in general.