Ecologies of Guilt in Environmental Rhetorics (Palgrave Studies in Media and Environmental Communication)

Environmental rhetorics have expanded awareness of mass extinction, climate change, and pervasive pollution, yet failed to generate collective action that adequately addresses such pressing matters. This book contends that the anemic response to ecological upheaval is due, in part, to an inability to navigate novel forms of environmental guilt. Combining affect theory with rhetorical analysis to examine a range of texts and media, Ecologies of Guilt in Environmental Rhetorics positions guilt as a keystone emotion for contemporary environmental communication, and explores how it is provoked, perpetuated, and framed through everyday discourse. In revealing the need for emotional literacies that productively engage our complicity in global ecological harm, the book looks to a future where guilt—and its symbiotic relationships with anger, shame, and grief—is shaped in tune with the ecologies that sustain us. Front Matter ....Pages i-ix Guilt as Keystone Emotion for Environmental Communication (Tim Jensen)....Pages 1-31 Guilt’s Plasticity (Tim Jensen)....Pages 33-68 Eco-friendly Scapegoats (Tim Jensen)....Pages 69-102 Guilty of Shame in the Anthropocene (Tim Jensen)....Pages 103-121 Guilty Grief and Ecological Mourning (Tim Jensen)....Pages 123-146 Epilogue: The Future of Environmental Guilt (Tim Jensen)....Pages 147-156 Back Matter ....Pages 157-161