Full Text Available
Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.
'The end of the world as we know it': imagining new possibilities for the Anthropocene through a study of Nigerian Africanfuturism
The imaginary of the Anthropocene as an environmental apocalypse facing the planet and calls for ecological literature from the perspective of the Global North masks the current environmental crisis in parts of the world that are “already living the apocalypse”. Likewise, science fiction has been hi...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Department of English Language and Literature
2024
|
| Subjects: | |
| Tags: |
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1867614439831764992 |
|---|---|
| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Young, Lisbeth |
| author2 | Moji, Polo |
| author_browse | Moji, Polo Young, Lisbeth |
| author_facet | Moji, Polo Young, Lisbeth |
| author_sort | Young, Lisbeth |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | The imaginary of the Anthropocene as an environmental apocalypse facing the planet and calls for ecological literature from the perspective of the Global North masks the current environmental crisis in parts of the world that are “already living the apocalypse”. Likewise, science fiction has been historically centred in the West in its interrogation of apocalyptic scenarios. This thesis examines how Africanfuturism, a term coined by Nnedi Okorafor in 2019 to define a new African-focussed science fiction, reframes the imaginaries of the Anthropocene as a global environmental apocalypse from the perspective of the Global South. This study combines an analysis of Africanfuturist science fiction tropes and narrative strategies with an ecocritical reading informed by Rob Nixon's notion of “slow violence” to re-frame the urgency of climate change within the context of postcolonial Nigeria. Reading beyond representations of the current environmental crisis through genres such as petro-fiction, I concentrate on Tade Thompson's Wormwood trilogy (2018–2019), in conversation with other contemporary Africanfuturist novels set in Nigeria, namely Nnedi Okorafor's Lagoon (2014), After the Flare (2017) by Deji Bryce Olukotun and Suyi Davies Okungbowa's David Mogo, Godhunter (2019). I argue that Africanfuturism allows for the re-imagination of the ecological crisis through depictions of the entanglement of the posthuman and nonhuman and the setting of a post-apocalyptic world providing a mechanism through which the extent of the crisis can be realised. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/39938 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:52:04.217Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publishDateRange | 2024 |
| publishDateSort | 2024 |
| publisher | Department of English Language and Literature |
| publisherStr | Department of English Language and Literature |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/39938 'The end of the world as we know it': imagining new possibilities for the Anthropocene through a study of Nigerian Africanfuturism Young, Lisbeth Moji, Polo English Language and Literature The imaginary of the Anthropocene as an environmental apocalypse facing the planet and calls for ecological literature from the perspective of the Global North masks the current environmental crisis in parts of the world that are “already living the apocalypse”. Likewise, science fiction has been historically centred in the West in its interrogation of apocalyptic scenarios. This thesis examines how Africanfuturism, a term coined by Nnedi Okorafor in 2019 to define a new African-focussed science fiction, reframes the imaginaries of the Anthropocene as a global environmental apocalypse from the perspective of the Global South. This study combines an analysis of Africanfuturist science fiction tropes and narrative strategies with an ecocritical reading informed by Rob Nixon's notion of “slow violence” to re-frame the urgency of climate change within the context of postcolonial Nigeria. Reading beyond representations of the current environmental crisis through genres such as petro-fiction, I concentrate on Tade Thompson's Wormwood trilogy (2018–2019), in conversation with other contemporary Africanfuturist novels set in Nigeria, namely Nnedi Okorafor's Lagoon (2014), After the Flare (2017) by Deji Bryce Olukotun and Suyi Davies Okungbowa's David Mogo, Godhunter (2019). I argue that Africanfuturism allows for the re-imagination of the ecological crisis through depictions of the entanglement of the posthuman and nonhuman and the setting of a post-apocalyptic world providing a mechanism through which the extent of the crisis can be realised. 2024-06-19T07:48:06Z 2024-06-19T07:48:06Z 2023 2024-06-06T13:44:08Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/39938 eng application/pdf Department of English Language and Literature Faculty of Humanities |
| spellingShingle | English Language and Literature Young, Lisbeth 'The end of the world as we know it': imagining new possibilities for the Anthropocene through a study of Nigerian Africanfuturism |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | 'The end of the world as we know it': imagining new possibilities for the Anthropocene through a study of Nigerian Africanfuturism |
| title_full | 'The end of the world as we know it': imagining new possibilities for the Anthropocene through a study of Nigerian Africanfuturism |
| title_fullStr | 'The end of the world as we know it': imagining new possibilities for the Anthropocene through a study of Nigerian Africanfuturism |
| title_full_unstemmed | 'The end of the world as we know it': imagining new possibilities for the Anthropocene through a study of Nigerian Africanfuturism |
| title_short | 'The end of the world as we know it': imagining new possibilities for the Anthropocene through a study of Nigerian Africanfuturism |
| title_sort | the end of the world as we know it imagining new possibilities for the anthropocene through a study of nigerian africanfuturism |
| topic | English Language and Literature |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/39938 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT younglisbeth theendoftheworldasweknowitimaginingnewpossibilitiesfortheanthropocenethroughastudyofnigerianafricanfuturism |