Human-eyed dolphins: Humanist noghtmares and posthumanist ecosystems in jeff vandermeer's southern reach tetralogy
Ten years after the release of The Southern Reachtrilogy, Jeff VanderMeer returns to the enigmatic realm of Area X with a fourth novel, Absolution (2024). This paper examines how the tetralogy’s engagement with the posthuman continuum challenges traditional definitions of the human-non-human dichoto...
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Sevilla (US) |
| Repositorio: | idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:dnet:idus________::0b0269431f6382c2bdc2a6e6dd28b6ba |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/11441/185290 http://dx.doi.org/10.12795/REN.2025.i29.11 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Southern Reach Jeff VanderMeer posthuman posthumanism weird fiction posthumano posthumanismo ficción extraña |
| Sumario: | Ten years after the release of The Southern Reachtrilogy, Jeff VanderMeer returns to the enigmatic realm of Area X with a fourth novel, Absolution (2024). This paper examines how the tetralogy’s engagement with the posthuman continuum challenges traditional definitions of the human-non-human dichotomy. Drawing uponphilosophical posthumanism as theorized by Rosi Braidotti, I argue that the novels in question not only resist conventional definitions of ecological disaster, but also redefine the concepts of existential continuityand agency in a posthuman context.In TheSouthern Reachnovels, the portrayal of posthuman entities reflects a deliberate deconstruction of oppositional identity configurations. VanderMeer achieves this through two primary mechanisms: on the one hand, the transference of traditionally abhuman attributes from non-human animals and alien entities to the human focalizers, and, on the other hand, the presentation of posthuman beings as desirable ontological possibilities. |
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