Caruth, Cathy. “Unclaimed Experience: Trauma and the Possibility of History.” Yale French Studies, no. 79, 1991, pp. 181–92. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2930251. Accessed 14 Dec. 2025.

Caruth explores trauma as an experience that is not fully assimilated at the moment it occurs, returning later in fragmented and repetitive forms. She argues that trauma challenges conventional historical narration, opening new possibilities for understanding history through belatedness, memory, and testimony.

Woolf, Virginia. Modern Fiction. Maulana Azad College, https://maulanaazadcollegekolkata.ac.in/pdf/open-resources/VWoolfModernFiction.pdf. Accessed 14 Dec. 2025.

In this essay, Woolf critiques materialist realism and advocates for a modernist approach that captures the fluidity of consciousness and inner life. She emphasizes subjective perception, memory, and psychological depth as central to representing reality in modern fiction.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. Can the Subaltern Speak? 1988, https://voidnetwork.gr/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Can-the-subaltern-speak-by-Gayatri-Spivak.pdf. Accessed 14 Dec. 2025.

Spivak interrogates whether marginalized, colonized subjects can truly have a voice within dominant epistemological and political structures. She concludes that the subaltern is often spoken for rather than heard, highlighting the ethical limits of representation and intellectual mediation.

Britt, Lucy, and Wilson H. Hammett, ‘Trauma as Cultural Capital: A Critical Feminist Theory of Trauma Discourse’, Hypatia, 39 (2024), 916–33 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/hyp.2024.22> Accessed 15 Dec. 2025.

This article critiques the contemporary circulation of trauma narratives as forms of cultural and symbolic capital. From a feminist perspective, the authors examine how trauma discourse can both empower marginalized voices and risk commodification or hierarchical valuation of suffering.

Dudley, Jack. “Beckett, Atwood, and Postapocalyptic Tragicomedy.” Novel, vol. 54, no. 1, 2021, pp. 104–119, Duke University Press. JSTOR, doi:10.1215/00295132-8868833. 

Dudley analyzes how postapocalyptic fiction employs tragicomedy to address trauma, survival, and existential uncertainty. Through Beckett and Atwood, the essay shows how humor and absurdity function as ethical and aesthetic responses to catastrophic worlds.

Baelo-Allué, Sonia, and Dolores Herrero Granado. “Between the Urge to Know and the Need to Deny: Trauma and Ethics in Contemporary British and American Literature.” Heidelberg: C. Winter., 2011.

This collection examines the ethical tensions involved in representing trauma in contemporary literature. The essays explore how narrative strategies negotiate between witnessing traumatic histories and acknowledging the limits of knowledge and representation.

​​Kumar, Abhishek. “Redefining Reality: A Modernist Perspective on Identity, Memory and Perception in the Writings of Virginia Woolf.” International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI), vol. 12, no. 5, 2025, pp. 829–833, doi:10.51244/IJRSI.2025.12050080.

Kumar analyzes Woolf’s modernist techniques to show how identity and reality are shaped by memory and subjective perception. The article situates Woolf’s work within modernist aesthetics, emphasizing fragmentation, interiority, and psychological realism.

The relationship between Henry and Catherine reflects several relational phenomenons prevalent in the Anthropocene. In one aspect, the feedback loops in the Anthropocene. Henry’s emotional instability creates more stress on Catherine, as she takes on the role of caretaker. In turn, Catherine’s stress increases pressure on Henry to “get it together” because his functionality is a necessity to maintain their family structure. Increased pressure on Henry further pushes his instability, and the cycle repeats. This too manifests in climate change. For example, with higher temperatures brings more drought, which causes more wildfires. Without any trees to absorb carbon, it is released into the atmosphere, which causes more warming, and more drought. Like Henry and Catherines relationship, the cycle then perpetuates itself. Though I would emphasize the term “micro-Anthropocene,” in the sense that the feedback loop in Henry’s context that furthers his instability and, in turn, his marriage, is a single faceted circle. On the other hand, feedback loops in the Anthropocene can look like many, many things. It can be something like drought, a psychological echo chamber (climate change doomscrolling leading to researching even more info, then more anxiety, etc), or even overconsumption in preparation for the worlds end, (which then leads to more demand in production, resources, chemical release, extinction, etc). The range of the Anthropocene’s small deaths are almost incomprehensible, endless. No matter how much you try and think of all the ways we are effected, you can always find something else. The slow erosion of their relationship overtime reflects the slow destruction of our Earth. The “everyday” that some cli-fi writers attempt to portray as a way of truly mirroring the nature of climate change, (as opposed to something coming full force in a large catastrophized event), is something that Offill tackles perfectly. Their relationship imploded as a result a pre-existing pattern that slowly led to Henry’s relapse and infidelity. Similarly, climate catastrophe will be a result of slow increments of worsening climate conditions. As Lizzie passively comments on how “there are fewer and fewer birds these days,” Henry passively asks, “Do you ever think it’s weird that we even have families?” Both instances indicate smaller signifiers leading to grandiose consequences.

I believe that modernist styled writing is a great way to interact with the Anthropocene. With modernism arising out of an emerging psychosomatic response to WW1, and the term “shell shock” (now known as PTSD), I think it corresponds well with the contemporary trauma response in relation to looming climate disaster. Emerging writing styles respond to external reality, these fragmented flashes of life, stemming from modernism, relatively mimic flashback memories you often experience with PTSD. Offill uses fractured moments and conversations to encapsulate an almost incommunicable feeling of overwhelm, fear, and hopelessness in a way that mimics how we react to the realities that plague us today. An example of this appears in a stream of thoughts arising when Lizzie is listening to a podcast on the way home from work. “There  are  recognizable patterns of  ascent and  decline. But  our industrial civilization is so vast, it has such reach… I look out the window. Something in the distance, limping toward the trees,” I believe this kind of imagery better encapsulates this anticipatory fear of industrialization reaching past the point of ascent. Seeing something from a distance, coming towards you without any way to reach it.. Etc. This kind of poetic way of narration could also be more sustainable to readers. It seeks to invoke feelings in a relatable way that doesn’t entirely overwhelm the psyche, as it could if she were to narrate her entire anxiety spiral. In this way, you are able to sit with Lizzie and interact with eco-fears alongside her; especially considering that you are processing this at the pace of the everyday. More specifically, living alongside Lizzie’s everyday life as a reader. 

Q- How does Atwood’s depiction of Oryx’s response and relationship to her trauma (fragmented, repressed, aloof) mirror the difficulties in navigating the global trauma of Anthropocene violence? How does this translate to Anthropocene fiction’s relationship to its readers?

Ateş, Kevser. “An Ecocritique of Postmodern Culture in Oryx and Crake.” Journal of Literature and Humanities, no. 73, 2024, pp. 151–158.

Flanagan, Holli. “Create, Destroy, Refigure: Capitalocene Identity in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake.” Master’s thesis, Appalachian State University, May 2021.

Franks, Nadia‑Terese Laguna. “‘Belief Rather Than a Memory’: The Relationship Between Gender and Trauma in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake.” C21: Journal of 21st‑Century Writings, vol. 11, no. 1, 2024.

Kururatphan, Sarawut. “Atwood’s Speculative Dystopian Imagination: Inequality, Hierarchy, and Warped Ethics as Harbingers of Apocalypse in Oryx and Crake.” Journal of Studies in the English Language, vol. 17, no. 1, 2022, pp. 1–27.

Tolan, Fiona. “The Psychoanalytic Theme in Margaret Atwood’s Fiction: A Response to Burkhard Niederhoff.” Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate, vol. 19, nos. 1–3, 2009/10, pp. 113–132.

Ok. for the research i honestly don’t really know how i got to all of these, I sort of just threw things all together very early this morning. I mostly used google to start a deep dive and google scholar. I’m not really sure how I feel about my question yet either. I know I want to focus in on Oryx but I may want to change the lens or be more specific somehow? Not sure. I’m also not completely certain about my satisfaction with the sources, to be honest I only read the abstracts and skimmed a bit because I just wanted to get a start on some feedback. I also don’t know if Flanagan could fly as a valid source.

How is the author able to push back on certain social roles while still acknowledging the reality of their existence? In some ways Ghosh accomplishes this. He challenges the heteronormative within the relationship between Piya, Kanai, and Fokir when softening the dynamic from a macho sword fight into a more nuanced, understood and mutual love. In some ways Kanai is emasculated, or forced into humility. While acknowledging these unconventional depictions of men, there are still some overlooked remainders. Several scenes I find most exemplary are most concentrated in the cyclone scenes. Piya, who’s character has been definitively independent, fast thinking, and seemingly accustomed to harsher environments because of her occupation, seemed to be unnecessarily depicted as helpless, needing Fokir to take control of the situation. I will say that, it makes sense that Fokir, who has grown up in the Tide Country his entire life and has a job that requires him to be in direct contact with the land and it’s tumultuous manner, would be more well equipped to handle this kind of disaster. However, it’s hard for me to imagine that Piya would become as helpless or as in need of direction as she was. You could argue that everyone responds to fear and disaster in a different way, but it may be interesting to interrogate why Ghosh writes her in this way, this seemingly out of character way. But this instance to me is more contestable, just something I have noticed that I find myself raising an eyebrow to. However, again this dynamic is displayed through the interaction with Kanai and Nilima. Regardless of her age, why would a stubborn, fiercely independent and self sufficient woman who has roughly 40 years of experience on her belt, suddenly be unable to handle an environmental disaster that she has been preparing for (and presumably experienced before)? Why would Kanai, who has only been on the island for a brief period of his life as a teenager, be better equipped to handle this kind of situation? If, perhaps, Ghosh is trying to emphasize her old age, I don’t understand why it would not only be reflected physically but mentally. Nilima is completely competent to the very last page of the novel. I don’t find it necessary to have her stand idly, not even thinking to bring her most precious items to the top floor in case of flooding. Ghosh inserting these more traditional gender roles, perhaps unconsciously, creates more of a disarming contradiction in the characters than a “realist” depiction of what it may look like for these people to be hurled into an ecological disaster. Lastly, and I think most surprising to me that an author who is interested in the critique of colonial legacies would decide to silence one of the most prominent and mentioned characters. Not only has Fokir been excluded from having a perspective in the actual composition of the novel, but besides scenes of him singing I believe there is maybe three actual lengthy dialogues that include him. The rest is projections from other characters, or dialogue about him while he is off somewhere in the distance. It strikes strange to reinforce the dynamic of the privileged and educated from metropolitan or modernized regions trumping over those who are underprivileged, excluded from the opportunity to be educated, and from rural regions. If it was intended to try and make a point in his silence, language barrier, or perhaps to critique this dynamic, then why not let him express that some other way? Why not in the same way that Piya and Kanai have expressed unsaid things? To defy or push against is to create a new narrative, to push something else. To reimagine these narratives without ability for recourse is to recreate the very thing you are questioning.