AN EXPLORATION OF ECOLOGICAL FLUX CAUSING MALLEABILITY OF SELF-HOOD IN JENNY OFFILL’S WEATHER

Abstract

The aim of the research paper is to explore Jenny Offill’s cli-fi novel, Weather, through the lens of climate change studies. The objective is to examine the psychological burden and sense of helplessness that accompanies the impending climate catastrophe. The novel’s pervasive sense of dread and eco-anxiety is illuminated through its characters’ struggle with personal anxiety, environmental collapse and the preparation for imminent doomsday. The significance of the study lies in accentuating the interconnectedness of human experience with the prevalent environmental crisis. This further demonstrates how individual selfhood can be eclipsed by larger existential threats. The study also probes the novel’s fragmented narrative style as a symbol of shattered self-hood and the dilapidating environmental spheres.

The primary tool of the research is Jenny Offill’s novel Weather. Whereas Anouchka Grose’s A Guide to Eco-Anxiety: How to Protect the Planet and Your Mental Health serves as the secondary tool. The dearth of scholarly research on Offill's novel as a precursor of eco-anxiety has compelled the research. Future researchers can explore environmental dystopia in the selected text. It is a qualitative, inductive and multi-disciplinary research.