Contemporary Oil Fiction: From Exuberance to Exhaustion
Abstract
Abstract: Whereas Frederick Buell identified two recurring motifs for oil fiction in the twentieth century (an "exuberance" always haunted by "catastrophe"), this essay proposes a third mode for contemporary oil fiction: exhaustion. The essay examines Hanya Yanagihara's novel The People in the Trees as a case study in the imbrication of extractivism with colonization, sexual exploitation, and extinction. This petro-exhaustion aesthetic indexes the wearing out of people, affect, and nonhuman lives and is thus particularly suited to sustaining attention to "slow violence" (Nixon) and "slow death" (Berlant). The essay speculates exhaustion now constitutes a defining feature of contemporary culture.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature
Short Stories in Global Literature
Travel Writing and Literature
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Modern fiction studies
- Volume
- 72
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 518–537
- Publication date
- 1 September 2026
- Language
- EN