The Single Source
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37536/ECOZONA.2010.1.1.334Keywords:
Solar, global warming, ecocriticism, mock-heroic, literary realism.Abstract
Key words: Solar, global warming, ecocriticism, mock-heroic, literary realism.
In this article I read Ian McEwan's new novel Solar and reflect on what its inclusions and omissions tell us about present concerns and developing projects in ecocriticism. I assess the novel as a literary response to global warming, placing it in a tradition of mock-heroic representations of bodily desire and vulnerability that is ambivalent for ecocriticism. In this connection, I look also at Joseph Meeker's The Comedy of Survival. I contrast the ecocritical mock-heroic with literary realism, and make some suggestions as to what the latter can contribute - criticising a reductiveness in what McEwan has done.
Palabras clave: Solar, calentamiento global, ecocrítica, tradición del héroe cómico, realismo literario.
Este ensayo es una lectura de la nueva novela de Ian McEwan, Solar, y una reflexión sobre lo que implican sus inclusiones y omisiones para el desarrollo de teorías ecocríticas. La novela constituye una respuesta literaria al calentamiento global, dentro de la tradición literaria del héroe cómico, en el sentido que le da la obra clásica de Joseph Meeker, The Comedy of Survival, y que presenta unas actitudes que resultan muy ambivalentes para la ecocrítica. Asimismo, se contrasta esta tradición literaria con el realismo, abogando por la validez de la última y criticando la tendencia reduccionista de la novela de McEwan.
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