Imagem ilustrativa | Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS).
‘On Not Calling a Spade a Spade’: Climate Fiction as Science Fiction
1º parágrafo
My brief argument here may at first look like splitting taxonomy hairs, but it really is not. I don’t want to appear oversensitive either, but I do think what I note has far-reaching consequences for how we actually talk about climate crisis as well as its cultural representations. Naming is both a categorization, always dearly needed for a number of reasons, and an act of cultural appropriation, whose underlying cultural, political, economic, and affective assumptions are often obscured from the view of those engaged in the very act. This is very much the case with climate fiction.
2º parágrafo
Whether labeled climate fiction or fiction of the Anthropocene, the prominent majority of texts dealing with climate change and catastrophic weather are really science fiction. Certainly, not all texts quite fit this qualification, but by and large, climate fiction is science fiction. There are, of course, reasons behind most critics’ unwillingness to admit just that. The most immediate of these is the overly narrow understanding of what science fiction is, which limits it to stories about aliens, apocalypses, and time machines.
3º parágrafo
In reality, science fiction is nothing like this and has not been for a long time. Of all cultural manifestations, science fiction has been particularly privileged to play the role of a mediator in the transactions between natural sciences and humanities, two cultures which, albeit much changed, still seem to be pitted against each other as adversaries. Neglecting these bridges leads, at best, to reinventing a wheel when there is a spaceship parked round the corner and, at worst, to reducing climate fictions to their human or social dimensions.
4º parágrafo
It would be perhaps somewhat rash to say that science fiction does not need climate fiction, but climate fiction does need science fiction, which can enrich and enhance the former’s conversations about the world undergoing tidal change. In its turn, the field of American Studies needs both climate fiction and science fiction. The multilateral discussions of American global agency and domestic woes cannot be limited to their political, social, and economic dimensions.
5º parágrafo
If one goal of American Studies is to raise awareness _____ the mistakes of the past and the hopes for the future that the United States has always been part of, then our field cannot afford ignoring science fiction: one realm of the cultural production that has, for the last century, consistently dramatized and problematized the interactions between human progress and nature. Climate fiction is, of course, merely one subset of this expansive body of texts, but its relevance _____ our lives and the future _____ the planet has been growing explosively _____ the last several decades.
🔗 Texto adaptado de: ‘On Not Calling a Spade a Spade’: Climate Fiction as Science Fiction. JSTOR. Disponível em: jstor.org. Acesso em: 2023.
🟨 QUESTÃO 01
The four missing prepositions in paragraph 5 are, respectively,
A) for – for – on – for
B) on – in – for – to
C) in – on – to – on
D) of – to – of – in
Gabarito: D
🧭 Leitura orientada
É preciso analisar as coligações fixas: “awareness of”, “relevance to”, “future of” e “in the last several decades”.
(A) 🚩 Pegadinha da banca: “awareness for” e “on the last decades” estão incorretos.
(B) 🚩 Pegadinha da banca: “awareness on” não é colocação válida.
(C) 🚩 Pegadinha da banca: “relevance on” está errado; o correto é “relevance to”.
(D) 🚩 Pegadinha evitada: todas as combinações são coligações idiomáticas corretas.
🚩 Armadilhas da banca
A banca explora preposições que parecem intercambiáveis, mas que violam coligações fixas do inglês acadêmico.
🧠 Resumo B3GE™ Master
As expressões corretas são awareness of, relevance to, future of e in the last decades. Por isso, a alternativa correta é D.