SUMMER STORMS, FOOD, AND REPRESENTATIONS OF THE CLIMATE CRISIS IN BRIT BILDØEN’S SJU DAGAR I AUGUST AND AGNAR LIRHUS’S LITEN KOKEBOK

Abstract

This article discusses representations of climate change in contemporary realistic fiction from Norway. I first focus my attention on the depiction of extreme weather and “risk society” in Brit Bildøen’s Sju dagar i august (Seven days in august, 2014) and then explore the concept of “ecological masculinities” and expressions of care in Agnar Lirhus’s Liten kokebok (Little cookbook, 2016). Although the two novels I discuss thematise climatic disruptions in different ways, they are similarly intertwining characters’ experiences of the natural world with personal feelings of loss and grief. I thus suggest that climate change imagery in Norwegian realistic fiction is often interwoven with an affective dimension. Finally, the aim of this article is to illustrate how the climate crisis has pervaded Norwegian literature, while providing some examples of how texts that lay outside of what is typically considered the cli-fi novel have the potential to engage with this theme.

Keywords

• climate change narratives
• contemporary norwegian fiction
• risk society
• extreme weather
• ecological masculinities
• care
• brit bildøen
• agnar lirhus