Mankind’s Relationship with the Environment in Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation

In Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation (2014), a unique relationship is established between a fecund and futuristic environment called Area X and a group of scientists commissioned to probe this area. While the scientists’ initial response toward this area is human-centered and Anthropocenic, the convent...

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Main Author: Hossein Mohseni
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Kurdistan 2023-05-01
Series:Critical Literary Studies
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Online Access:https://cls.uok.ac.ir/article_62644.html
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author Hossein Mohseni
author_facet Hossein Mohseni
author_sort Hossein Mohseni
collection DOAJ
description In Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation (2014), a unique relationship is established between a fecund and futuristic environment called Area X and a group of scientists commissioned to probe this area. While the scientists’ initial response toward this area is human-centered and Anthropocenic, the conventional expectations of this initial response are severely shattered later in the novel. The present study believes that the various aspects of this shattering gives us a glimpse of the kind of relationship we could have with the environment in the Anthropocene, the human epoch. By utilizing the theoretical concepts in key secondary sources – such as Pieter Vermeulen’s Literature and the Anthropocene (2020) and Benjamin Robertson’s None of This Is Normal: The Fiction of Jeff VanderMeer (2018) – the study identifies that various demarcational means fail to fulfill their binary making function due to the vastness and unmappable nature of environments such as Area X. Accordingly, this failure constitutes the study’s purpose in that it shows conventional paradigms of mankind’s knowledge bodies could not delve into the cognizance and intentions of an amoral and un-registrable environment. This failure also shows recalcitrant areas such as Area X are already present and all encompassing around us.
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spelling doaj-art-f760977f821647dc8f4d14025a0d4e692025-08-20T01:56:48ZengUniversity of KurdistanCritical Literary Studies2676-699X2716-99282023-05-0152456210.34785/J014.2023.016Mankind’s Relationship with the Environment in Jeff VanderMeer’s AnnihilationHossein Mohseni0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0509-7959Assistant Professor of English Language and Literature, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.In Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation (2014), a unique relationship is established between a fecund and futuristic environment called Area X and a group of scientists commissioned to probe this area. While the scientists’ initial response toward this area is human-centered and Anthropocenic, the conventional expectations of this initial response are severely shattered later in the novel. The present study believes that the various aspects of this shattering gives us a glimpse of the kind of relationship we could have with the environment in the Anthropocene, the human epoch. By utilizing the theoretical concepts in key secondary sources – such as Pieter Vermeulen’s Literature and the Anthropocene (2020) and Benjamin Robertson’s None of This Is Normal: The Fiction of Jeff VanderMeer (2018) – the study identifies that various demarcational means fail to fulfill their binary making function due to the vastness and unmappable nature of environments such as Area X. Accordingly, this failure constitutes the study’s purpose in that it shows conventional paradigms of mankind’s knowledge bodies could not delve into the cognizance and intentions of an amoral and un-registrable environment. This failure also shows recalcitrant areas such as Area X are already present and all encompassing around us. https://cls.uok.ac.ir/article_62644.htmlvandermeerannihilationanthropocenenaturecartographicsymbioses
spellingShingle Hossein Mohseni
Mankind’s Relationship with the Environment in Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation
Critical Literary Studies
vandermeer
annihilation
anthropocene
nature
cartographic
symbioses
title Mankind’s Relationship with the Environment in Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation
title_full Mankind’s Relationship with the Environment in Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation
title_fullStr Mankind’s Relationship with the Environment in Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation
title_full_unstemmed Mankind’s Relationship with the Environment in Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation
title_short Mankind’s Relationship with the Environment in Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation
title_sort mankind s relationship with the environment in jeff vandermeer s annihilation
topic vandermeer
annihilation
anthropocene
nature
cartographic
symbioses
url https://cls.uok.ac.ir/article_62644.html
work_keys_str_mv AT hosseinmohseni mankindsrelationshipwiththeenvironmentinjeffvandermeersannihilation