Ecological Horror in the Anthropocene Era: Representations of Non-Human Entities in Contemporary English-Language Climate Fiction
Keywords:
Ecological Horror, Anthropocene, Climate Fiction, Ecocriticism, Non-Human Agency, Gothic LiteratureAbstract
The intersection of ecological crisis and literary horror has generated a distinctive subgenre within climate fiction (cli-fi) that foregrounds the uncanny agency of non-human entities. This article examines how contemporary English-language climate fiction represents non-human entities including fungi, rising seas, extreme weather systems, invasive species, and geological forces as agents of ecological horror in the Anthropocene era. Purpose: This study aims to analyze the rhetorical and narrative strategies through which cli-fi authors deploy non-human entities to challenge anthropocentrism and evoke existential dread rooted in ecological collapse. Methods: A qualitative ecocritical analysis was conducted on ten canonical and emerging cli-fi works published between 2005 and 2024, including novels and short fiction by authors such as Jeff VanderMeer, Richard Powers, and Amitav Ghosh. Texts were analyzed using posthumanist and new materialist theoretical frameworks alongside traditional narrative theory. Results: Findings reveal three dominant representational modes: the sublime-horrific, in which natural forces exceed human comprehension and control; the creeping uncanny, in which gradual ecological change defamiliarizes the familiar world; and the monstrous agency mode, in which non-human organisms exhibit disturbing purposiveness. These modes collectively produce what this study terms 'Anthropocene horror,' an affect-laden response that implicates human civilization in its own undoing. Implications: The study suggests that ecological horror fiction functions as a form of affective activism, cultivating a visceral awareness of environmental responsibility among readers. Conclusion: Contemporary climate fiction's deployment of ecological horror represents a significant evolution in environmental literature, reorienting the reader's moral and emotional relationship with non-human life.
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