Arcadiana

A Blog about Literature, Culture and the Environment

Rivers as Emblems of Hope and Resilience: Drowning and Resurfacing in the Ganga

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by Saloni Shokeen I still remember the extreme experience of drowning in the Ganga. A few years back, I went up the river with the intention of acquainting myself with rafting. As we got on our rafts, the river appeared to be calm and serene, except for a few rapids that shook the raft with …

Narratives of Resilience: Human and Non-Human Resistance in Climate Fiction during the Anthropocene

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by Kanika Godara and Sudeep Kumar American climate fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson is known for his progressive views, which led him to oppose the dystopian mindset. His writing “stands out for its steadfast commitment to utopian possibilities” (Heise 18), and he is recognized as one of the rare modern writers who persistently and consistently …

A Case for Denise Levertov as an Ecofeminist

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Ecofeminism was not refined in its usage until the 1980’s when Levertov was losing popularity as a poet, so it is unlikely she ever would have used this term in her life (ignoring the fact that she did not want to be labelled as a feminist in the first place), however, her work and personal ideologies closely aligns with the general theories of ecofeminism established and refined throughout her lifetime.

“Survival is insufficient”: The cautionary power of speculative fiction

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Current headlines abound with apocalyptic references to the global climate emergency. The 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released in August 2021 brought into the mainstream what climate scientists already knew – dramatic and life-altering changes to the climate are much closer than many of us expected. The ambiguous language is gone.