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Hostile environments, climate justice, and the politics of the lifeboat

Whittle, Matthew (2021) Hostile environments, climate justice, and the politics of the lifeboat. Moving Worlds, 20 (2). pp. 83-98. ISSN 1474-4600. (KAR id:89527)

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Abstract

This article explores how migration and ecological crises need to be addressed together by examining the most common analogy to emerge in critical and creative responses to the relationship between climate breakdown and global mobility - that of individual nation-states as lifeboats. To demonstrate this, I analyse the ways in which John Lanchester’s The Wall (2019) and Alexis Wright’s The Swan Book (2013) reveal how dystopian fiction is able to stage, satirize, and confront the stark premises of the nation-as-lifeboat analogy. Lastly, by placing Wright’s depiction of the confluent experiences of environmental refugees and Aboriginal Australians in dialogue with the perspectives of Native American (specifically Potawatomi) scholars, Kyle Whyte and Robin Wall Kimmerer, I demonstrate how debates about mobility, climate catastrophe, and interspecies relations need to be informed by Indigenous science and storytelling.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled keywords: Climate change, migration, climate justice, John Lanchester, Alexis Wright
Subjects: P Language and Literature
P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN80 Criticism
P Language and Literature > PR English literature
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of English
Signature Themes: Migration and Movement
Depositing User: Matt Whittle
Date Deposited: 30 Jul 2021 11:34 UTC
Last Modified: 13 Dec 2021 23:05 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/89527 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)
Whittle, Matthew: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2051-9630
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