Homecoming. Rebuilding a Destroyed Planet in Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31261/SSP.2023.21.07Keywords:
climate fiction, science fiction, solarpunk, utopia, ekokrytyka, Kim Stanley RobinsonAbstract
This article explores the significance of Earth in the futurological vision presented by Kim Stanley Robinson in his novel titled 2312, maintained in the genre of climate fiction. Intense technological development together with the progressive degradation of the natural environment served as the foundation for a pessimistic perspective, which resulted in the motif of leaving our planet in order to build life anew in other parts of the universe in the literary discourse. Robinson contrasts this direction in thinking about the future with an optimistic narrative, centred around restoration and a return to roots. The text provides an analysis of such an approach, and shows the speculative nature of the picture of humanity outlined in Robinson’s novel. In addition, the aim of the article is to point out the links between the work and a trend which is developing in the space of science fiction – solarpunk.
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