ATMOSPHERES OF ANXIETY: AFFECTIVE ECOLOGIES IN THE OVERSTORY

Abstract

This paper focuses on Richard Powers' The Overstory to investigate the emotive aspects of climate fiction. Drawing on affect theory, namely the writings of Sara Ahmed, Timothy Morton, and Brian Massumi, the study investigate how the novel creates a sense of communal ecological consciousness through wonder, grief, anxiety, and connectivity. Powers frames environmental catastrophe as an emotive event that circulates among human and nonhuman bodies, rather than merely presenting climate change as a scientific or political crisis. The study explores the ways in which arboreal metaphors, polyphonic structure, and narrative style contribute to an embodied feeling of environmental precarity. The paper makes the case that The Overstory uses affect to subvert anthropocentric perception and promote ecological relationality through qualitative textual analysis based on affect theory and ecocriticism. The story reorients readers' emotional ties and broadens their empathy beyond humans by emphasizing trees as communicative and agentic beings. In the end, this study shows that climate fiction functions as affective education as well as speculative narrative, transforming readers' perceptions of the planetary problem and fostering fresh approaches to ecological awareness.