Jan 6 – Guest Lecture “On Ecology, Literature, and Slow Disasters: Climate Anxiety and the American Novel” 🗓

While the climate crisis continues to ravage planetary systems, a concomitant psychological crisis has unfolded mostly out of sight: the widespread experience of climate anxiety. Among large parts of the American populace, spiraling thoughts about ecological collapse have become commonplace and many report these worries to affect their daily functioning. Both the ubiquitous nature and intensity of these feelings warrants scholarly attention. In my guest lecture, I will discuss the ways in which such worries manifest in the US-American novel and what conclusions can be drawn from analyzing texts relevant to this experience – in particular, Jenny Offill’s novel Weather and Ben Lerner’s 10:04. By doing so, I will present a perspective on climate anxiety that highlights its capacity to induce a crisis of meaning and to reconfigure the worldviews of those who experience it.

Jonas Müller received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in American Studies from the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. He has recently completed writing his dissertation on climate anxiety under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Alfred Hornung and is currently preparing its publication. His areas of interest include the environmental humanities, gender studies, and political economy.

You can download the poster for the event here.