Ecofear as visible and invisible: Conceptual underpinnings of The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer
| dc.contributor.author | Baindur, Meera | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2021-04-15T16:19:29Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2021-04-15T16:19:29Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2021-04-08 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Human response to ecophobia and ecofear have been mitigated through belief in science and technology that are supposed to establish knowledge and control over nature. This essay will look at the relationship between nature and fear through an ecocritical reading of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy (2014) titled Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance. The first novel Annihilation is written from a biologist's view of an ecozone known as Area X in which there is a continuous situation of unknowability and invisibility of the environment that is subjected to study and control in the plot. The second novel carries ecophobia into the very organisation 'Southern Reach' that is investigating Area X. Here the encounter between the protagonists and Area X is mediated by data and the politics of human beings working together, yet keeping secrets from each other. In the third novel, the climax reveals the intelligence that is Area X, yet at the same time masking its intention and the future of human beings and their interests. While analysing the different types of ecofear, I posit that it is possible for a certain kind of literature to evoke a horror of ourselves and transform ecophobia within our attitudes. This essay concludes with the significance of self-abnegation and a collapse of human arrogance at both the epistemic level and identity-separateness for being with nature. I posit that this kind of novel, a sort of ecologically inspired fiction, renders the human interest invisible, against bio-interest resulting in a foundational shift in our attitude to nature and ourselves. | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Baindur, M. (2021). Ecofear as visible and invisible: Conceptual underpinnings of The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer. International Journal of Fear Studies, 3(1), 11-25 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1880/113231 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/38722 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.publisher | In Search of Fearlessness Research Institute | |
| dc.publisher | The Fearology Institute | |
| dc.publisher.faculty | Werklund School of Education | |
| dc.publisher.hasversion | Published version | |
| dc.rights | Meera Baindur ©2021 | |
| dc.subject | ecophobia | |
| dc.subject | ecofear | |
| dc.subject | Southern Reach Trilogy | |
| dc.subject | topophrenia | |
| dc.subject | topophilia | |
| dc.subject | topophobia | |
| dc.title | Ecofear as visible and invisible: Conceptual underpinnings of The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer | |
| dc.type | journal article |