Ecocriticism and Climate Fiction in Contemporary Anglophone Literature: Narrative, Ethics, and the Anthropocene

Abstract

The accelerating ecological crises of the twenty-first century have transformed climate change from a scientific concern into a central cultural and literary problem. Contemporary Anglophone literature increasingly addresses this crisis through climate fiction (cli-fi), a genre that foregrounds environmental catastrophe, ecological precarity, and the entanglement of human and nonhuman life. This article examines the intersection between ecocriticism and climate fiction in selected works by Margaret Atwood, Amitav Ghosh, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Barbara Kingsolver. Drawing upon ecocritical theory, postcolonial environmentalism, ecofeminism, and narrative studies, the paper argues that contemporary climate fiction not only represents ecological crisis but also reshapes ethical consciousness in the Anthropocene. Through close textual analysis of Oryx and Crake, MaddAddam, Gun Island, New York 2140, and Flight Behavior, the study demonstrates how these texts transform abstract environmental data into lived experience, dramatize climate-induced displacement and extinction, and challenge anthropocentric assumptions. The article further contends that climate fiction functions as a form of cultural activism by cultivating ecological literacy, encouraging transnational awareness, and envisioning alternative futures beyond ecological collapse. Ultimately, the convergence of ecocriticism and climate fiction reveals literature to be a crucial medium through which contemporary societies negotiate environmental anxiety, ethical responsibility, and the possibility of ecological resilience.