‘But the real problem is….’: The Chameleonic Insidiousness of ‘Overpopulation’ in the Environmental Humanities

Clark, Timothy

doi:10.3366/olr.2016.0177

‘But the real problem is….’: The Chameleonic Insidiousness of ‘Overpopulation’ in the Environmental Humanities

Clark, Timothy

Authors

Professor Timothy Clark t.j.clark@durham.ac.uk
Emeritus Professor

Abstract

This paper offers an overview of the chameleonic nature of overpopulation as an environmental issue, and of the relative evasion of population as an issue in ecocriticism and elsewhere: the very multiplicity of environmental factors means that population pressure can always seem to be finessed as “really” something else. Overpopulation looks drastically different as an issue, depending on whether it is considered at the level of the nation state, that of individual right, or as a global phenomenon. Finally, the chameleonic nature of overpopulation poses intractable challenges to literary representation, since it resists representation at the scalar norms of realism.

Citation

Clark, T. (2016). ‘But the real problem is….’: The Chameleonic Insidiousness of ‘Overpopulation’ in the Environmental Humanities. Africa Bibliography, 38(1), 7-26. https://doi.org/10.3366/olr.2016.0177

Journal Article Type	Article
Online Publication Date	May 31, 2016
Publication Date	Jul 1, 2016
Deposit Date	Jun 28, 2016
Publicly Available Date	Oct 2, 2017
Journal	Oxford Literary Review
Print ISSN	0266-6731
Electronic ISSN	1757-1642
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	38
Issue	1
Pages	7-26
DOI	https://doi.org/10.3366/olr.2016.0177

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Copyright Statement
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Edinburgh University Press in Oxford Literary Review. The Version of Record is available online at: http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/olr.2016.0177.