Inhuman writing in Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5726554 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Andrew Strombeck (Wright State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 8 |
| Pages | 1365-1382 |
| Publication date | 2020-08-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Textual Practice (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0950-236X • E-ISSN: 1470-1308 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0950236x.2019.1583684 |
| OpenAlex | W2915812605 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, which has become well-known for its embrace of the nonhuman, is nevertheless highly interested in texts, literary and otherwise. VanderMeer has identified a key passage from the novel as originating in a dream he had after the Deepwater Horizon spill. He thus figures the spill as writing through him, a figuration which the series itself takes up. Moving from the dream writing, through scientific journals, through the agency designed to manage Area X, the series figures Area X as emanating what Bruno Latour has called beings of fiction. VanderMeer characterises, then, that which is unrepresentable in text as nevertheless representing itself in text, raising intriguing problems with the discourses – object oriented ontology and new materialism – that have often framed discussions of his novels
Art · Art history · Dream · Epistemology · Linguistics · Literature · Materialism · Trilogy · Computer Science · Contemporary Literature and Criticism · History · Philosophy · Psychology · Utopian, Dystopian, and Speculative Fiction
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |