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College

Seattle University

Major

English

Faculty Mentor

June Johnson Bube

Faculty Editor

Christina Roberts

Student Editor

Hope Onstad and Camila Torres

Abstract

While climate change has been a known phenomenon for decades, social and cultural factors have stagnated our collective ability not only to discuss ongoing climate disasters, but also to conceptualize the disintegration of the very relationship between humanity and the natural world. This essay builds upon existing research and theory, proposing that climate fiction could serve as an antidote to our “cultural derangement,” which simultaneously destroys the relationship between humanity and nature, and our relationship with one another. This essay analyzes several examples of climate fiction that leverage the figure of the child as a symbol of hope and a model of adaptation, community reconnection, and coexistence with the natural world. This essay argues that the child figures in Diane Cook’s The New Wilderness, Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves, and Lily Brooks-Dalton’s The Light Pirate demonstrate the relevance of children within climate rhetoric and offer a possible path forward towards environmental, cultural, and interpersonal repair.

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