Compassionate states: Neoliberalism and affect in Lisa Moore’s Something for Everyone

Lisa Moore’s 2018 collection of stories, Something for Everyone , addresses the social, economic and cultural costs of neoliberalism on her home province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Moore’s exploration of the micropolitics of place – amidst global forces of change and disruption – probes the production of neoliberal subjects through the ethos of personal enterprise and the rigour of competition. These forces, along with practices of consumerism and mobility, transform relations of gender and family and upset generational exchanges. Consonant with the neoliberal short story identified by Michael Basseler, Moore’s stories chart the affective reorientation of subjects in the face of social disparities, risk and violence, edging them towards a neoliberal common sense. Yet the stories also strive after moments of resistance, of genuine connection and compassion. This article situates Moore’s work among Canadian literary depictions of place that probe communal possibilities, alongside ongoing neoliberal branding exercises that associate Canada with a progressive sense of the collective, of compassion and peacemaking.