Research Question : How can we reimagine a utopia through existentialism in the ‘Everyday Anthropocene” in Offill’s novel, Weather

1.  Caracciolo, Marco. “Short Forms for Eco-Anxiety: Cognitive Realism in Climate Fiction.” Theory Now (Online), vol. 8, no. 2, 2025, pp. 10–29, https://doi.org/10.30827/tn.v8i2.30745.
2. 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, vol. 6, no. 2, 2025, https://doi.org/10.47060/jaaas.v6i2.227.
3. Toole, Maggie. “The Obligation to Tear Through the Veil: An Analysis and Transformation of Mankind’s Insufficient Complacency Through the Novels of Jenny Offill.” Meliora (New York), vol. 1, no. 2, 2022, https://doi.org/10.52214/meliora.v1i2.8727.
4. LeMenager, Stephanie. “Climate Change and the Struggle for Genre.” Anthropocene Reading, edited by Jesse Oak Taylor and Tobias Menely, vol. 1, Penn State University Press, 2021, pp. 220–38, https://doi.org/10.1515/9780271080390-013.
5. Budziszewska, Magdalena, and Sofia Elisabet Jonsson. “From Climate Anxiety to Climate Action: An Existential Perspective on Climate Change Concerns Within Psychotherapy.” The Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167821993243.
6. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/382936745_The_Peril_of_Climate_Change_in_Jenny_Offill’s_Weather_2020
7. Dudley, Jack. “Beckett, Atwood, and Postapocalyptic Tragicomedy.” Novel : A Forum on Fiction, vol. 54, no. 1, 2021, pp. 104–19, https://doi.org/10.1215/00295132-8868833.

The annotations I have collected were from Hunter Library. With this, I’d like to explain how Jenny Offill’s weather brings up eco-anxiety and a sense of existentialism. By defining what it is, the effects of eco-anxiety, how in Offills novel, Lizzie copes with this feeling, how otehr characters cope. Proper ways to deal with this existentialism. Similar to how Dudley uses Becketts use of tragic comic to NOT deal with the Anthropocene, Dudley uses Atwood’s novel as an example of how tragic comic is useful. I will demonstrate how eco anxiety and existentialism is necessary in order to reimagine a utopia while living in the Anthropocene.

In Weather, how does Offill utilize Lizzie’s conversational narrative style to draw attention to readers on the reality of climate change?

Offill, Jenny. Weather: A Novel. Vintage Books, a Division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2021.  

https://jalt.com.pk/index.php/jalt/article/view/500

https://revistascientificas.us.es/index.php/ESTUDIOS_NORTEAMERICANOS/article/view/21977 

https://iasj.rdd.edu.iq/journals/uploads/2025/10/08/8b877dc201cd7141d4564d9385cbf730.pdf 

https://doaj.org/article/d654e3d264c54d43be93472ed3a49cc6 

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 – Doaj.” Journal of the Austrian Association for American Studies, University of Innsbruck, 1 June 2025, doaj.org/article/d654e3d264c54d43be93472ed3a49cc6. 

Abarrio, Rubén Peinado. “‘fragmented and Bewildering:’ The New Risk Society in Jenny Offill’s Weather.” Revista de Estudios Norteamericanos, 29 Dec. 2022, revistascientificas.us.es/index.php/ESTUDIOS_NORTEAMERICANOS/article/view/21977. 

Aena Munawar, Maryam Raza. “An Exploration of Ecological Flux Causing Malleability of Self-Hood in Jenny Offill’s Weather.” Journal of Applied Linguistics and TESOL (JALT), 6 Mar. 2025, jalt.com.pk/index.php/jalt/article/view/500.  

In Part Two of Weather, the focus shifts to Henry and his newly pregnant girlfriend, Catherine. Despite all Henry has struggled with, Lizzie is impressed with his ability to maintain his new life. Although she is impressed, she seems to frequently fret over Henry, in fear that he will relapse. The state of his sobriety might not be able to withstand new fatherhood, and it appears Lizzie feels the same way. Page 81, Lizzie says. “Maybe I can stop having that dream now. The one where my brother shows up at my apartment and says, Lizzie, can I die here?” Page 95, Henry went for a smoke, and all Lizzie could think about was whether he was relapsing or not. It’s clear Lizzie worries about Henry when she isn’t worrying about the climate crisis. She drops everything for Henry despite being aware she’s his enabler. I’ve also noticed Lizzie’s role in becoming Sylvia’s assistant has intensified. The messages they’re receiving displayed panic, urgency, fear, etc. With the same worries, Lizzie does her best to provide their audience with answers, knowing this is a problem that she can’t really solve.

While reading, I noticed a few things that caught my attention. Lizzie’s financial state seems to be someone getting by. For example, she and Henry are out for lunch, and she pays the bill. She hands her card over to the waitress, hoping there’s enough money available (94). After her lunch, she takes Jimmy’s car service. I thought it was ironic considering she was unaware of whether she could’ve paid for lunch or not, but she took Jimmy’s car service right after. In reality, there are people just like Lizzie. They’re just getting by, yet they can’t deny themselves of the one thing (Jimmy’s car service) that may help their situation. Lizzie took on the new job because she knew it could benefit her family; cutting back on the car service can be beneficial for them as well. Page 107, Lizzie says, “It pains her the way everyone goes around with their heads down these days.” Sylvia is referring to the fact that Lizzie didn’t bother to notice the river, which is the reality of our time. We are consumed with technology so much that we don’t stop to enjoy the finer things in life, like the river Sylvia talked about. Page 102, questions the idea of heaven basically being everything that you ever loved and or enjoyed just without Christ. My question is, would it even be considered heaven without Christ?

Research Question: How does Atwood’s depiction of genetically-engineered hybrids assess the boundary between “the human” and “the animal”?

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Atwood, Margaret. Oryx and Crake. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2004.

Giovannelli, Laura. “Blackbeard and the Post-Anthropocene Humanoids. Tracing the Post/Transhuman in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy.” Between, vol. 12, no. 24, 2022, pp. 291-311. Hunter OneSearch, https://doi.org/10.13125/2039-6597/5127.

Heise, Ursula K. “The Android and the Animal.” PMLA, vol. 124, no. 2, 2010, pp. 503-510. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25614291.

Kozioł, Sławomir. “From Sausages to Hoplites of Ham and Beyond: The Status of Genetically Modified Pigs in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy.” Papers on Language and Literature: A Journal for Scholars and Critics of Language and Literature, vol. 54, no. 3, 2018 Summer, pp. 261-295. Modern Language Association, research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=4d1eded4-edae-3f55-b2c0-1d0e0ba9082a.

Schmeink, Lars. “The Anthropocene, the Posthuman, and the Animal.” Biopunk Dystopias: Genetic Engineering, Society and Science Fiction, Liverpool University Press, 2016, pp. 71-118. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1ps33cv.6.

Schmeink, Lars. “Dystopia, Science Fiction, Posthumanism, and Liquid Modernity.” Biopunk Dystopias: Genetic Engineering, Society and Science Fiction, Liverpool University Press, 2016, pp. 18-70. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1ps33cv.5.

Yoo, Jihun. “Transhumanist Impulse, Utopian Vision, and Reversing Dystopia in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake and Octavia E. Butler’s Dawn.” The Modern Language Review, vol. 114, no. 4, 2019, pp. 662-681. JSTOR. https://doi.org/10.5699/modelangrevi.114.4.0662. 

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All of the papers listed here were sourced from three (Hunter OneSearch, JSTOR, and International MLA Bibliography) of the five research engines we looked through during our library visit. I found that while the International MLA Bibliography did not produce as many results as I hoped, it did produce papers that were not on OneSearch or JSTOR (or at least the first five pages of those two databases). I decided to abandon “Oryx and Crake” as a search term and instead opted for “Maddaddam” because it yielded more results. I also included “transhumanist/ism” as a search term alongside “posthumanist/ism” as search terms. I also found that databases were more receptive of the terms “genetic engineering” alongside “science fiction” in terms of producing literature-focused paper compared to “bioengineering”. Three of these sources I found during our library session and using some of the terms suggested during that session such as “Anthropocene”.

 How does Margret Atwood and Jenny Offill use fragmented temporal structures to convey human anxiety and a sense of responsibility in the Anthropocene?

https://jbh.journals.villanova.edu/index.php/JBH/article/view/2508

https://cuny-hc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=cdi_informaworld_taylorfrancisbooks_10_4324_9781003605515_9_version2&context=PC&vid=01CUNY_HC:CUNY_HC&lang=en&search_scope=IZ_CI_AW&adaptor=Primo%20Central&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,Anthropocene,%20Weather,%20Jenny%20Offill&offset=0&pcAvailability=true

https://cuny-hc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=cdi_proquest_ebookcentralchapters_31309128_9_36&context=PC&vid=01CUNY_HC:CUNY_HC&lang=en&search_scope=IZ_CI_AW&adaptor=Primo%20Central&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,Anthropocene,%20Weather,%20Jenny%20Offill&offset=0&pcAvailability=true/ 

https://www-jstor-org.proxy.wexler.hunter.cuny.edu/stable/41319888?sid=primo&seq=2

https://read-dukeupress-edu.proxy.wexler.hunter.cuny.edu/poetics-today/article/44/1-2/89/365622/Aging-through-Precarious-Time-Maintenance-and

• de Freitas Massuno, Tatiana. “The Wish to Stop Time: Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake.” Journal of Big History, vol. 4, no. 1, 2020, pp. 13–20, https://doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i1.4170.
• Lehtimäki, Markku. “Living on Multiple Planes: Daily Life, Global Crisis, and Narrative Fragmentation in Jenny Offill’s Weather.” Nature and Narrative, 1st ed., vol. 1, Routledge, 2025, pp. 188–209, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003605515-9.
• Lehtimäki, Markku. “Daily Life and Global Crisis: Human Experience and Narrative Fiction in the Age of the Anthropocene.” Storying the Ecocatastrophe, edited by Katarina Leppänen and Helena Duffy, 1st ed., Routledge, 2024, pp. 25–44, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032726953-2.
• SNYDER, KATHERINE V. “‘TIME TO GO’: THE POST-APOCALYPTIC AND THE POST-TRAUMATIC IN MARGARET ATWOOD’S ‘ORYX AND CRAKE.’” Studies in the Novel, vol. 43, no. 4, 2011, pp. 470–89, https://doi.org/10.1353/sdn.2011.0057.
• Kruger, Katherine. “Aging through Precarious Time: Maintenance and Milling in The Cost of Living and Weather.” Poetics Today, vol. 44, no. 1–2, 2023, pp. 89–110, https://doi.org/10.1215/03335372-10342099.

The majority of my sources are derived from the Hunter Libraries one search engine because I’ve used the search engine before for previous research papers and I felt most comfortable navigating it to find the necessary sources I need to help articulate my argument. I did try using the other search begins like the JSTOR search engine and works similarly to the One search engine to find specific or niche topics. The key words I would rotate around would be “Anthropocene”, “Time”, “Temporality”, “Weather”, “Jenny Offill”, “Oryx and Crake”, and “Margaret Atwood”. I tried to focus on more broad searches and quickly skimmed through the sources and narrowed the ones that would best fit under the topic of my argument. I might tweak the questions that I created just a little bit as I keep searching for more sources to articulate the best argument I can make.