READING APOCALYPTIC FICTION WITH TIMOTHY MORTON’S HYPEROBJECTS AFTER

Abstract

My thesis is concerned with the efficacy of the contemporary apocalyptic fiction and its role in nurturing ecological awareness. It attempts to contribute to the field of ecocriticism by analysing the concept of ‘apocalypse’ alongside Timothy Morton’s notion of Hyperobjects. Timothy Morton asserts that the apocalyptic rhetorical device is incompatible with true ecological awareness brought about by hyperobjects, as the device defers the urgency of global warming to an unproductive imaginary beyond. My essay attempts to refute that notion and argue instead that apocalyptic fiction is essential and productive in imagining a future that includes all objects in our environment, human and non-human alike. The first chapter of my thesis rethinks the idea of ‘apocalypse’. I assert that it is the eschatological burden tied to the concept of the ‘apocalypse’ that has rendered it anthropocentric and unproductive to ecological awareness. By analysing the concept alongside Timothy Morton and Jairus Grove, I attempt to extricate the concept of ‘apocalypse’ from the clutches of anthropocentric interest and reconfigure it to include non-human objects as well as hyperobjects. The apocalyptic trope thus no longer becomes effete and escapist future, but rather, a productive rhetorical device used in fiction to reveal humankind’s weakness and fragility in relation to our increasingly complex global ecosystem. The second chapter of my thesis attempts to read this new reconfigured notion of ‘apocalypse’ with two contemporary novels, Namely— Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer and Severance by Ling Ma. This analysis will focus on two tropes, namely the ‘wilderness’ and the ‘zombie’. Through textual analysis I present how humans can form an intimate and more attuned relationship with their environment which includes all objects, humans and non-humans alike. This can be accomplished through a concept I refer to enchantment, as well as the possibility of posthuman assimilation with non-human objects.