Some Examples of the Ecogothic in Contemporary English Language Fiction

Since the publication of Amitav Ghosh’s The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable in 2016 (Chicago University Press), critical attention has been focused on the issues that Ghosh raises in respect to the relation between the art of fiction and climate change. Ghosh draws his argumentation in part on Dipesh Chakrabarty’s “The Climate of History: Four Theses”. This paper explores the degree to which novels of leading English language writers, such as Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Be-havior and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, might be considered representatives of that new genre known as the Ecogothic, a type of the Neogothic. The work draws on the distinction that Chakrabarty makes between the Vichian verum-factum and recent accounts of the working of the human in the natural world.

Dalla la pubblicazione di The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable in 2016 (Chicago University Press) di Amitav Ghosh, l'attenzione critica si concentra su questioni che Ghosh si fa in rispetto al rapporto fra l'art della finzione e il cambiamento climatico. Ghosh si appoggia in parte su “The Climate of History: Four Theses” di Dipesh Chakrabarty. Questa ricerca esplora il grado di adesione a questa tesi ai quali romanzi di scrittori in lingua inglese, come Flight Be-havior di Barbara Kingsolver e The Road di Cormac McCarthy, possono essere considerati rappresentativi del Ecogotico, un variante del Neogotico. Questa ricerca dipende di una distinzione che Chakrabarty fa fra il vichiano verum-factum e recenti relazioni del rapporto fra l'umano mondo naturale.