Anthropocene Mothering: Motherhood in Climate Fiction
How is motherhood portrayed in a world shaped by climate change? In this talk, Wiktoria Grzybowska explores the role of mothering in contemporary climate fiction and its significance for questions of climate responsibility. The seminar is open to all – everyone is welcome!
Abstract
Even though environmental discourses often reference language connected to maternity and childrearing, the practice of mothering remains, within environmental humanities, often peripheral. This talk explores the possibilities that come from centering motherhood in the larger environmental humanities scholarship and contemporary climate fiction.
Climate fiction, with its focus on speculative futures and distributed agency provides a perspective on the cultural imaginaries surrounding climate change and the role of mothering. Whether apocalyptic or realist, it can tell stories about mothering in a world shaped by environmental precarity.
During this talk, I will outline the analytical framework guiding my doctoral research and introduce the concept of Anthropocene mothering, showcasing the contribution mothering could make in responding to issues related to climate and sustainability.
Biography
Wiktoria Grzybowska is a first-year PhD student in English literature at the Department of Languages and Literatures, University of Gothenburg. Her research focuses on the representations of mothers in climate fiction, positioning mothering as an epistemic site for rethinking care and responsibility during climate emergency. Drawing on perspectives from environmental humanities and feminist literary criticism, she examines the cultural imageries of motherhood and climate change represented in contemporary narratives written by women in English.