at Google ScholarTitle data
Mayer, Sylvia:
Narratives of Resilience in Times of Climate Crisis : Angry Optimism and Utopian Minimalism in Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140 and Jenny Offill's Weather.
In: Journal of the Austrian Association for American Studies.
Vol. 6
(2025)
Issue 2
.
- pp. 186-207.
ISSN 2616-9533
DOI: https://doi.org/10.47060/jaaas.v6i2.227
Abstract in another language
The essay discusses two climate change novels, Kim Stanley Robinson’sNew York 2140and Jenny Offill’sWeather, as resilience narratives. It argues that these novels –New York 2140speculating about a possible future, set more than 100 years in the future,Weatherengaging our present cultural moment, the early 21stcentury –ex-plore diverse experiences of, and responses to, human-made climate crisis, directly engaging with the interconnected ecological, political, economic, social, and cultural effects ofglobal warming, but also with responses such as climate skepticism and denial as well as cognitive dissonance, climate anxiety, and grief related to climate change. Applying the concept of resilience in its diverse meanings as an analytical framework emphasizes that fictional climate narratives often go beyond merely “sounding the alarm” about climate risks or concentrating exclusively on catastrophe. Rather, they also shed light on strategies of adaptation, flexibility and endurance and on the potential for transformation to allow for a more hopeful and even utopian reading. For this purpose, the concepts of “angry optimism” and “utopian minimal-ism” are introduced, the former articulated by Robinson, the latter introduced by critic Anahid Nersessian, who have both participated in the debate on the relevance and timeliness of utopianism in times of climate crisis.
Further data
| Item Type: | Article in a journal |
|---|---|
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Keywords: | Transformation; solidarity; co-operation; socio-ecological systems; climate fiction; climate anxiety; resilience |
| Institutions of the University: | Faculties > Faculty of Languages and Literature > Chair American Studies/ Anglophone Literatures and Cultures > Chair American Studies/ Anglophone Literatures and Cultures - Univ.-Prof. Dr. Sylvia Mayer Profile Fields > Emerging Fields > Cultural Encounters and Transcultural Processes Research Institutions > Central research institutes > Bayreuth Institute for American Studies - BIFAS |
| Result of work at the UBT: | Yes |
| DDC Subjects: | 800 Literature > 810 American literature in English |
| Date Deposited: | 04 Aug 2025 06:12 |
| Last Modified: | 04 Aug 2025 06:12 |
| URI: | https://eref.uni-bayreuth.de/id/eprint/94415 |