Research Focus Group Meeting: Embracing Ecological Uncertainty through Narrative

Uncertainty is a central psychological dimension of the ecological crisis. The science of climate change brings into view widely divergent scenarios; the discrepancy between these more or less catastrophic visions of the future undermines our ontological security (in Anthony Giddens’s terminology). Dr. Caracciolo argues that literary narrative has an important role to play in cultivating readers’ ability to live with uncertainty. He describes this process as a shift from a primarily negative understanding of uncertainty (as something to be avoided at all costs) to a more complex, nuanced appreciation. The presentation will be followed by a discussion moderated by Professor Sowon Park.

The meeting is open to all but we do ask you to register to attend so that we can spend our time in the meeting as productively as possible. Please register by April 15. After you’ve registered, you will receive a Zoom invitation as well as a 1,000-word document introducing the research that we ask that you read before the meeting. Please see the information sheet “Sustainability and the New Human IHC Research Focus Group Meetings” for more information about this and the structure of the meeting.

Marco Caracciolo is Associate Professor of English and Literary Theory at Ghent University in Belgium. He is the author of five books, including most recently Narrating the Mesh: Form and Story in the Anthropocene (University of Virginia Press, 2021).

Sowon Park is Assistant Professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Together with Professor Sangwon Suh, she is one of the conveners of the Sustainability and the New Human Research Focus Group.

Sponsored by the IHC’s Sustainability and the New Human Research Focus Group