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
The essay discusses two climate change novels, Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140 and Jenny Offill's Weather, as resilience narratives. It argues that these novels – New York 2140 speculating about a possible future, set more than 100 years in the future,Weather engaging our present cult...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Innsbruck
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Journal of the Austrian Association for American Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://jaaas.eu/jaaas/article/view/227 |
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| author | Sylvia Mayer |
| author_facet | Sylvia Mayer |
| author_sort | Sylvia Mayer |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The essay discusses two climate change novels, Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140 and Jenny Offill's Weather, as resilience narratives. It argues that these novels – New York 2140 speculating about a possible future, set more than 100 years in the future,Weather engaging our present cultural moment, the early 21st century – explore diverse experiences of, and responses to, human-made climate crisis, directly engaging with the interconnected ecological, political, economic, social, and cultural effects of global 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 minimalism" 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.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-d654e3d264c54d43be93472ed3a49cc6 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2616-9533 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | University of Innsbruck |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of the Austrian Association for American Studies |
| spelling | doaj-art-d654e3d264c54d43be93472ed3a49cc62025-08-20T02:07:37ZengUniversity of InnsbruckJournal of the Austrian Association for American Studies2616-95332025-06-016210.47060/jaaas.v6i2.227Narratives of Resilience in Times of Climate Crisis: Angry Optimism and Utopian Minimalism in Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140 and Jenny Offill's WeatherSylvia Mayer0University of Bayreuth, GermanyThe essay discusses two climate change novels, Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140 and Jenny Offill's Weather, as resilience narratives. It argues that these novels – New York 2140 speculating about a possible future, set more than 100 years in the future,Weather engaging our present cultural moment, the early 21st century – explore diverse experiences of, and responses to, human-made climate crisis, directly engaging with the interconnected ecological, political, economic, social, and cultural effects of global 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 minimalism" 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. https://jaaas.eu/jaaas/article/view/227transformationsolidarityco-operationsocio-ecological systemsclimate fictionclimate anxiety |
| spellingShingle | Sylvia Mayer 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 Journal of the Austrian Association for American Studies transformation solidarity co-operation socio-ecological systems climate fiction climate anxiety |
| title | 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 |
| title_full | 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 |
| title_fullStr | 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 |
| title_full_unstemmed | 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 |
| title_short | 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 |
| title_sort | 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 |
| topic | transformation solidarity co-operation socio-ecological systems climate fiction climate anxiety |
| url | https://jaaas.eu/jaaas/article/view/227 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT sylviamayer narrativesofresilienceintimesofclimatecrisisangryoptimismandutopianminimalisminkimstanleyrobinsonsnewyork2140andjennyoffillsweather |