The theme of New York in All the Water in the World: An ecolinguistic account
Coastal cities (for instance, New York) are exceptionally vulnerable to
the negative consequences of climate change, such as water erosion
and flooding. Seemingly, the sad reality of climate change has inspired
Eiren Caffall to portray the flooded New York City in her recent dysto
pian novel All the Water in the World (2025). Given its recency, the
theme of New York in All the Water in the World is fairly unexplored in
literary and ecolinguistic studies. In this light, the present paper seeks
to address the research gap by means of analysing how the theme of
New York is represented in All the Water in the World. The representa
tion of the flooded New York in Caffall’s novel is analysed through the
prism of an ecolinguistic approach developed by Stibbe (2014, 2015).
In the paper, the qualitative ecolinguistic analysis of All the Water in
the World reveals that the theme of New York is represented by means
of (i) the scientific framing of the issue of climate change; (ii) the over
arching metaphor of human life as the American Museum of Natural
History in New York; (iii) backgrounding the antediluvian New York as
we know it; and (iv) foregrounding the image of decay. These findings
are further presented and expanded upon in the paper.
the negative consequences of climate change, such as water erosion
and flooding. Seemingly, the sad reality of climate change has inspired
Eiren Caffall to portray the flooded New York City in her recent dysto
pian novel All the Water in the World (2025). Given its recency, the
theme of New York in All the Water in the World is fairly unexplored in
literary and ecolinguistic studies. In this light, the present paper seeks
to address the research gap by means of analysing how the theme of
New York is represented in All the Water in the World. The representa
tion of the flooded New York in Caffall’s novel is analysed through the
prism of an ecolinguistic approach developed by Stibbe (2014, 2015).
In the paper, the qualitative ecolinguistic analysis of All the Water in
the World reveals that the theme of New York is represented by means
of (i) the scientific framing of the issue of climate change; (ii) the over
arching metaphor of human life as the American Museum of Natural
History in New York; (iii) backgrounding the antediluvian New York as
we know it; and (iv) foregrounding the image of decay. These findings
are further presented and expanded upon in the paper.
Publisert i Beyond Philology, 2026
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