Abstract
The Song of the Metal Grasshopper is a distinctive work in the context of modern and contemporary climate change fiction that explores the intersection of class and climate change. Although there are affinities between The Song of the Metal Grasshopper and several modern and contemporary works, such as, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006) and Diane McCaulay’s Daylight Come (2020), The Song of the Metal Grasshopper engages with the concepts of class representation in catastrophe and the role of family and gender within catastrophe. It is a polyphonic expression of catastrophe, a representation of the voices of those at the forefront of climate change disaster. The novel develops from the mosaic technique used by John Brunner in the New Wave S(peculative) F(iction) literary movement (1962-1978) to explore the internal psyche of the characters in climate change disasters. This combines to make the novel distinctive, perhaps even a unique form of climate change representation. The novel is written in two sections: part one reflects the chaos of voices in pre-trauma, both locally and globally, during a rapid escalation of climate change disaster(s), and part two explores the aftermath, and the language of post-trauma and survival guilt. Nevertheless, despite there being novels that feature ecological concerns in climate change fiction (Cli-fi), Cli-fi has misinterpreted catastrophe and has developed the apocalypse, from the science-fiction genre, as a mechanism of permanence of middle-class survivalism. Most contemporary Cli-fi explores and represents a continuation of middle-class lifestyles in the present and future. This denial is not sustainable and has developed through the exclusion of those voices who have experienced climate change disaster, the working-class poor. The novel and accompanying exegesis explores this exclusion and the reasons behind it and is informed by the critical work of the following eco-critics: Adam Trexler and his concept of the climate change novel; Timothy Clark and his theory about Cli-fi novel forms as delusoryentrapment; and the science-fiction critic, Nicholas Ruddick, and his argument on the development of the nature of catastrophe as an art form, coalescing into a literary-political position defined by lack of underrepresented voices in climate change fiction. The work focuses on the use of the polyphonic to represent the myriad of voices undergoing a global catastrophe and how anticipation of the bleak realities of climate change has precedence in the works of John Brunner, John Christopher and George Turner, Cormac McCarthy, and Diane McCaulay. The Song of the Metal Grasshopper’s characteristic polyphonic method — defined by the New Wave SF aspect of process over product — leads to a characterisation of the novel as Literary British Disaster SF. Finally, in an analysis informed by Ruddick’s influential theories, The Song of the Metal Grasshopper is identified as a distinctive subgenre of that – the British catastrophe novel. The catastrophe novel arises from an opposition to the lack of class representation in Cli-fi by the author and is reflected and expressed via the protagonists, reportage and experimentation of structure in the novel and the analysis asserts the differences between climate change realities and the failed representations in fiction of those socio-economic groups most impacted by it, which is crucially timely.
| Date of Award | 8 Sept 2025 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Supervisor | Stephen Ely (Main Supervisor) |