Abstract

Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future is discussed as a future history that engages with three fundamental problems of Anthropocene literature: the relationship between fact and fiction; the representation of complex and multi-scalar processes; and the narrativization of agency. Robinson confronts these questions by adapting various small forms in his novel such as the eyewitness report, the protocol, the dictionary entry and the riddle. Analyses of the (fictional) dictionary entry and one riddle show how Robinson’s formal adaptations, inbreakingwith the conventions of these forms, provide a meta-commentary on the problems of Anthropocene literature. The narrativization of (historical) agency is further scrutinized as the dynamics of concealment and revealment intrinsic to the small form of the riddle also come into play with regard to the plot structure and the constellation of the central characters. Robinson’s history of the future attempts to intervene in the present by challenging the reader to consider the feasibility of the many ideas, models and technical solutions presented in the novel in order to avert an impending climate catastrophe.