A Different Look at Disaster Movies

Srinivas Aravamudan is a Duke University professor of 18th-century English literature with wide-ranging interests and an unusual approach to contemporary issues. On Oct. 9, Aravamudan presented this year’s Connelly lecture, “On Climate Change and Contemporary Disaster Movies.” Clips from popular disaster movies such as Roland Emmerich’s 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow were displayed because they showed a manifestation of the perception of climate change in the public consciousness.

The only way the movies can process climate change is as a weather event or series of weather events rather than as a structure, according to Aravamudan. It is very hard to show the “slow violence” of climate change in a narrative film, much less a blockbuster action/adventure movie. All the films discussed, from Beasts of the Southern Wild to 2012 to Ice Age, show the complete or nearly complete destruction of the world, but allow the survival of a nuclear family. Most films that depict climate change either exempt the family from destruction or demonstrate that humankind can evolve and survive. Aravamudan brought up the alternative: What if we can’t evolve?

The Connelly lecture series is named for Peter Connelly, a popular Grinnell English professor who died in 2000. Aravamudan is a professor of English and dean of the humanities at Duke and has served as president of the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes. His specialties include British literature, 18th-century literature, postcolonial literature, critical theory (modern to contemporary), and novels.