The (Neo-)Slave Narrative and the Plantationocene

Abstract:Utilizing the concept of the Plantationocene, which articulates how racial capitalism created and continues to shape the climate crisis, this essay connects the slave narrative to the contemporary neo-slave narrative to show how the plantation serves as the “ugly blueprint” (McKittrick) of the climate crisis. It also traces the alternative ecologies of resistance and repair that this literature encodes. By reading African American literature as climate literature, I seek to expand climate fiction’s canon, thus transforming how the genre is most often configured around white writers and recentering it on race. White supremacy, African American literature argues, has long fueled and continues to drive the climate crisis.