Klimanarrative für den Literaturunterricht

Saci Lloyds Jugendroman The Carbon Diaries und seine Erzählungen im Gattungskontext der Dystopie

Abstract

Education for sustainable development is supposed to be embedded in all high school core courses including German and English studies. Literature and especially climate change novels can make an important contribution in this context. This article examines young adult dystopias about climate change by focusing particularly on Saci Lloys’s novel The Carbon Diaries. Tapping into a long literary tradition, young adult dystopias have recently become very popular again. Against this backdrop, the article discusses the benefits and limits of reading and interpreting novels like The Carbon Diaries in the classroom. On the one hand, they might raise climate change awareness by illustrating the effects of global warming and initiating a discussion on possible actions. On the other hand, most of these dystopias are also coming-of-age stories which have a strong focus on themes like first love or adventure. This might lead to a distraction from problems of the climate crisis.