This project analyses representations of climate change and the changing relationship between humans and their natural environment, climate migration, land reclamation, ecotopias, and climate awareness across different modes of representation and literary traditions. It not only brings together research on Maltese, Italian, English-language, German-language and Francophone literary texts and films, but also narratives of humannature relations in dance, the performing arts, games and other modes of expression. This allows for highly interesting comparative analyses of works from various disciplines.
One of the themes covered, for instance, is the representation of climate migration in fictional narratives across different media. The analyses focus on the representation of adaptation and transformation processes undergone by communities and individuals impacted by the climate crisis, the way that such issues relate to established notions of centres and peripheries and engage with the connection between the local and the global in the context of anthropogenic climate change.
Narratives of climate change can also both reveal and have a direct bearing on the varying levels of climate awareness encountered in a community. Participants in this project will, for example, seek to explore how different literary works in the Francophone tradition reinforce a crucial understanding and awareness of climate change and promote the vital importance of a more sustainable future. In the same vein, the research on Maltese literature will discuss the extent to which climate awareness features in Maltese narratives of recent decades. Another focal point for the project is the way that the genres of Fantasy and Sci-fi deal with comparable climate issues and to consider the representation of physical, social and cultural transformations caused by climate change.
Further research on the modes of representation of human-nature relations will include the bodily experience of urban landscapes, such as the use of movement practice to inform the making of urban spaces. By connecting technology and movement research, this aims to create more inclusive and sustainable environments for local communities and has the potential to inspire the creation of living spaces that better integrate human life with nature.