Zwischen Biologie und Bürokratie
Unheimliche Bürolandschaften in Georg Kleins Miakro und Jeff VanderMeers Authority
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22019970 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alexandra Müller (0000-0002-3061-1510, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 1 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Publication date | 2024-11-08 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Zeitschrift für Fantastikforschung (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2192-0885 • E-ISSN: 2753-8494 |
| Publisher | Open Library of the Humanities (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.16995/zff.11248 |
| OpenAlex | W4390944078 |
| Language | DE |
| References cited | 5 |
Following a brief overview of various forms and functions of office settings in fantastic literature, this article will discuss the representation of the supernatural workplace in Georg Klein’s Miakro (2018) and Jeff VanderMeer’s Authority (2014). Both novels bring together seemingly disparate worlds: the natural and the bureaucratic sphere. Klein’s text is about a group of employees who work and live in an animated organic office without a traditional public-private divide, which turns out to be part of a giant mushroom. VanderMeer’s novel concerns itself with the stealthy invasion of a secret government agency by Area X, an ecosystem of extraterrestrial origin that transforms human beings into posthuman creatures. In this this paper, I analyze how Kleins novel deploys its grotesque office setting to reflect dystopian tendencies in contemporary work culture by discussing ramifications of capitalist labor practices such as alienation, worker exploitation, distorted work-life balance and social conformity. Moreover, I will argue that the parasitic office creature can be interpreted as a symbolic manifestation of hyperobject capitalism. VanderMeer, in contrast, uses the haunted house in decline trope as a metaphor for the downfall of human civilization: the bureau. The story of the destruction of the governmental agency by a pristine wilderness therefore questions an anhropocentric worldview by dissolving the dichotomy between the human and the nonhuman. I will demonstrate how the author links the collapse of the bureaucratic rule with the impending end of the human episteme. Paying particular attention to the description of spatial relations, I will furthermore examine how the texts use elements of Gothic and Weird Fiction in order to turn man-made uncanny places into monstrous nonhumanen spaces
Computer Science · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · Spatial and Cultural Studies · Utopian, Dystopian, and Speculative Fiction
| Highly cited | No |
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