LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 25:6 June 2025
ISSN 1930-2940

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Imagining Tomorrow: Utopian and Dystopian Visions of Climate Futures in Selected Contemporary Speculative Fictions of Octavia Butler, Paolo Bacigalupi, Kim Stanley Robinson and Rebecca Roanhorse

Meghali Saikia, Ph.D. Research Scholar

Abstract

In the face of intensifying climate crisis, literature has emerged as a powerful space for imagining environmental futures and articulating the ethical, political, and existential stakes of the Anthropocene. This paper examines how contemporary speculative fiction envisions climate futures through both dystopian and utopian lenses, focusing on five key texts: Parable of the Sower (Octavia Butler), The Water Knife (Paolo Bacigalupi), New York 2140 and The Ministry for the Future (Kim Stanley Robinson), and Black Sun (Rebecca Roanhorse). Through an ecocritical and interdisciplinary lens, the paper explores how these works construct divergent responses to climate breakdown, ranging from collapse and violence to reform and resilience. While Butler and Bacigalupi depict brutal dystopias marked by resource scarcity, social fragmentation, and survivalist ethics, Robinson?s novels offer speculative blueprints for systemic change and institutional reform, and Roanhorse?s Black Sun, though situated in a mythic pre-industrial world, introduces an indigenous futurist framework that reorients environmental and cosmological relationships. Together, these narratives illuminate the intersection of climate change with race, class, gender, governance, and spiritual worldviews. By comparing narrative form, imagined futures, and socio-political contexts, this paper argues that speculative fiction not only reflects contemporary anxieties about climate collapse but also serves as a space for envisioning alternative modes of existence. These texts challenge readers to rethink the boundaries of possibility, agency, and ecological ethics, making them vital contributions to both environmental humanities and climate discourse. The analysis will draw on theories of speculative fiction, utopian studies, and critical dystopian theory to illuminate the ways in which texts engage with and challenge dominant narratives about the future.

Keywords:climate fiction, ecocriticism, utopia, dystopia, environmental humanities, indigenous futurism, Anthropocene literature, postcolonial ecologies, climate justice

Introduction

The escalating climate crisis has intensified literary engagement with environmental futures, particularly within the genre of speculative fiction. Through imaginative extrapolations of climate change, authors explore the ethical, political, and existential dimensions of ecological collapse. Utopian and dystopian modes, in particular, offer powerful frameworks to critique the status quo and envision radical alternatives. This paper analyses how Butler, Bacigalupi, Robinson, and Roanhorse articulate divergent but interconnected visions of climate futures, ranging from bleak dystopias to cautious utopias, through their speculative fiction.

Objectives of the Study 1. To analyse how selected speculative fictions construct utopian and dystopian visions of climate futures. 2. To examine the intersection of climate change, politics, and social justice in the selected texts. 3. To explore how speculative fiction contributes to climate discourse and environmental awareness. 4. To investigate the role of alternative worldviews, including Indigenous cosmologies and cooperative systems, in imagining future resilience.

Significance of the Study This study contributes to the growing field of climate humanities by exploring how speculative fiction mediates the complexities of climate change, socio-political inequity, and collective futures. It foregrounds the role of literary imagination in not only representing environmental crises but also in envisioning transformative possibilities. By examining diverse narrative strategies across gendered, racial, and geopolitical lines, the paper affirms the importance of inclusive storytelling in reshaping global climate discourse.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Meghali Saikia, Ph.D. Research Scholar
Mahapurusha Srimanta Sankaradeva Viswavidyalaya Nagaon
meghalisaikia22@gmail.com

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