Reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 in the Anthropocene Epoch: Climate Change, Economic Inequality and a Return of the Commons

The purpose of this study was attempted under the premise that, in order to deal with the global crisis of climate change, a change in individual perception is necessary and literary imagination is one of the means suitable for this role. Kim Stanley Robinson, the author of New York 2140, also emphasized that one of the practical purposes of literature is to stimulate readers’ imagination and change their perception in dealing with ecological crisis-related issues. In this context, the paper tried to analyze New York 2140, which leads readers’ imaginative participation through the life of a future city, Manhattan, suffering from rising sea levels and deepening economic inequality due to climate change. This will be a chance to think more three-dimensionally about the issues of the Anthropocene, climate change, and sustainable survival.