I just learned that the latest fad in English departments is “cli-fi” – that is, climate fiction. Courses are built around books that feature a dystopian future due to the supposed harm that the current generation has caused to the environment
Yes, for real. Here’s what the Chronicle of Higher Education reports:
Cli-fi courses have grown rapidly in frequency, says Dan Bloom, a journalist who is often credited with having coined the term, in 2008. Three years ago, there were only a handful of courses at North American colleges that would be considered cli-fi, he says, but that number has ballooned to at least 100 since then.
These books are not necessarily good literature, but no matter. “This is not all great literature if you would measure by purely literary standards,” [Sina Farzin, who teaches sociology at the University of Hamburg] says. But “that idea misses the point,” explains the Chronicle, paraphrasing a lecturer who teaches such as course in London. Rather, he says, “the aim of his class is to examine all kinds of texts, from the high-brow to the mainstream. “
A professor English at the University of Virginia loves them:
These kinds of courses have put it all on a new footing, and there is a kind of level of urgency, of insight, of research, and new information coming out of it. It’s transforming business as usual in literature studies.
But wait! Business as usual in English departments has already been transformed. Read Jay Schalin’s dystopian description of The Decline of the English Department.