Reproductive Loss in the Anthropocene: Paul McAuley's Austral

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The figure of the child is evocative of the deep time of human-as-species and has been read as a symbol of the future that forecloses political possibilities. Drawing on the work of Lee Edelman and Rebekah Sheldon, this paper argues that in the era of the climate crisis and the Anthropocene, the symbolism of reproductive loss is becoming increasingly significant, redolent as it is of futures cut short and time running out. This paper reads Paul McAuley's Austral, a text centered around the miscarriage of its main character, a woman gene-edited to survive in Antarctic conditions. While the miscarriage represents a story brought to a premature end, it also anchors the novel's narrative, which deals with the terraforming of Antarctica in conditions of global warming and the racialization of new forms of gene-edited life. The article considers the importance of reproductive loss as a metaphor for the climate crisis, while also engaging with the importance of representing and expressing experiences of reproductive loss that are often grieved in private.