Theory & Event· 2026Q1
Complaints about the Weather: Eco-Neurosis in Jonathan Safran Foer and Jenny Offill
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- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
This essay introduces 'eco-neurosis' as an affective response to the environmental crisis, characterized by compulsive policing of consumption and lifestyle due to a conflict between awareness of harm and attachment to capitalist 'good life' promises.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Eco-neurosis is defined as an affective response to the environmental crisis.
- It involves compulsive policing of consumption and lifestyle patterns.
- This behavior arises from a conflict between environmental awareness and capitalist 'good life' promises.
- The complaint is identified as a genre expressing eco-neurosis, potentially offering renewed belonging.
- Analysis of Foer and Offill suggests the complaint may perpetuate the eco-neurotic double bind.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Abstract: This essay identifies eco-neurosis as an affective response to the environmental crisis. Aware that their lives contribute to this crisis, the eco-neurotic polices their consumption and lifestyle patterns, yet simultaneously remains attached to the good life promise under capitalism: a double bind that causes compulsive thoughts and feelings. If such eco-neurosis causes an affective displacement, this essay proposes the complaint as a genre that expresses such neurosis and offers the promise of renewed belonging. A reading of eco-neurosis in Jonathan Safran Foer's We Are the Weather (2019) and Jenny Offill's Weather (2020) shows how the complaint however preserves the double bind.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Theory & Event, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Cultural Studies
Cultural StudiesSocial Sciences