“Let’s have the conversation” : climate change, religion, and belief formation in Barbara Kingsolver’s flight behavior
department or school: Creative and Critical Studies, Faculty of (Okanagan)
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCO
creator: Defehr, Steven
issued: 2020-12-24T00:34:03Z
issued: 2020
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Eco Critic Greg Garrard hits the nail on the head when he comments in “Conciliation and Consilience: Climate Change in Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior” that “[i]t is not facts that people primarily believe… but other people [and] Dellarobia is swayed [to the anthropogenic climate change position] as much by Byron’s charisma as by anything he tells her” (306). With Garrard’s comment in mind, I argue that Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior is a key example of how a work of climate fiction is better equipped at portraying relationships between people and nonhuman animals than depicting environmental disasters or making scientific facts accessible to readers. Moreover, in terms of cultural work, the psychological elements in Kingsolver’s writing and her melodramatic style bring a type of realism to the text not common to climate fiction since the genre’s origins are founded in science fiction. Kingsolver shows the role of conversation and influence in understanding climate change and acting in response to it. Her attention to human relationships, how arguments evolve, and their consequences is more convincing and more useful in promoting climate change than simply depicting catastrophes.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/76887
note: “LET’S HAVE THE CONVERSATION”: CLIMATE CHANGE, RELIGION, AND BELIEF FORMATION IN BARBARA KINGSOLVER’S FLIGHT BEHAVIOR by Steven Defehr B.A., St. Mary’s University, 2017 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (English) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) December 2020 © Steven Defehr, 2020 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis/dissertation entitled: “LET’S HAVE THE CONVERSATION”: CLIMATE CHANGE, RELIGION, AND BELIEF FORMATION IN BARBARA KINGSOLVER’S FLIGHT BEHAVIOR submitted by Steven Defehr in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in English. Bryce Traister, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies Supervisor George Grinnell, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies Supervisory Committee Member Paul Milton, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies Supervisory Committee Member Liane Gabora, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences University Examiner Jannik Eikenaar, School of Engineering External Examiner iii Abstract Eco Critic Greg Garrard hits the nail on the head when he comments in “Conciliation and Consilience: Climate Change in Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior” that “[i]t is not facts that people primarily believe… but other people [and] Dellarobia is swayed [to the anthropogenic climate change position] as much by Byron’s charisma as by anything he tells her” (306). With Garrard’s comment in mind, I argue that Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior is a key example of how a work of climate fiction is better equipped at portraying relationships between people and nonhuman animals than depicting environmental disasters or making scientific facts accessible to readers. Moreover, in terms of cultural work, the psychological elements in Kingsolver’s writing and her melodramatic style bring a type of realism to the text not common to climate …
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2021-02
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0395387
language: eng
degree discipline: English
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/76887