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Foreshadowing
Genre
Explanation and Analysis:
As a novel that jumps between the present and the future to explore the possibilities of changes to come, Station Eleven falls into the genre of speculative fiction. Books in this genre focus on “what if” scenarios, using their settings and circumstances to reflect on societal, ethical, and philosophical problems and questions. It’s a genre that has become increasingly popular in the 20th century and beyond, with canonical works including Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and George Orwell’s 1984. Like science fiction, speculative fiction imagines worlds that differ from reality. However, unlike science fiction these explorations are not limited to futuristic technology. Instead, the genre encompasses a broad range of possibilities, which can include alternate histories, dystopian futures, all sorts of fantasy elements, and even supernatural occurrences. In short, novels of speculative fiction examine real-world concerns by pushing familiar conditions to extremes.
Station Eleven explores civilization on the North American continent in the aftermath of a devastating swine flu pandemic, which the novel calls the “Georgia Flu.” The author presents the reader with a world where modern civilization has rapidly and dangerously collapsed, forcing characters to rebuild and adapt. It also jumps backward and forward in time, showing the reader how different the worlds of the past and the present are from one another. Through this lens, the novel explores how people change when the comforts and safety of their everyday lives and communities disappear.
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