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Event Website
https://www.mythsoc.org/oms/oms-2024.htm
Start Date
2-17-2024 5:30 PM
End Date
2-17-2024 6:20 PM
Description
My proposal is a paper on the inherent queerness of the liminal in Jeff Vandermeer’s works, through examples such as the transitional narrative present in the transformation of the Biologist in Annihilation. Especially pertinent is the inherent fighting of Yonic/Phallic imagery happening between her interpretation of a concrete structure as a tower as opposed to a tunnel, which is important to understanding how the Biologist’s trans-masculinity manifests symbolically in the narrative as antithesis to the other cis women on the expedition. Vandermeer’s liminal space in Dead Astronauts also connects to the characters of Moss, a non-binary life form who exists simultaneously across the multiverse; Grayson, an astronaut who was stranded alone in space for decades after the death of her planet while she was on a mission; and Chen, a worker for The Company who is taught by Moss to break their body apart into different objects and elements constantly fighting against their body’s want to dissolve and separate. All three characters embody a different kind of liminality: only their mutual overt love for one another keeps them existing in the between states.
Included in
Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, Digital Humanities Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America Commons, Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons, Medieval Studies Commons, Modern Languages Commons, Modern Literature Commons, Other English Language and Literature Commons
No Place: The Queer Utopia of Liminality
My proposal is a paper on the inherent queerness of the liminal in Jeff Vandermeer’s works, through examples such as the transitional narrative present in the transformation of the Biologist in Annihilation. Especially pertinent is the inherent fighting of Yonic/Phallic imagery happening between her interpretation of a concrete structure as a tower as opposed to a tunnel, which is important to understanding how the Biologist’s trans-masculinity manifests symbolically in the narrative as antithesis to the other cis women on the expedition. Vandermeer’s liminal space in Dead Astronauts also connects to the characters of Moss, a non-binary life form who exists simultaneously across the multiverse; Grayson, an astronaut who was stranded alone in space for decades after the death of her planet while she was on a mission; and Chen, a worker for The Company who is taught by Moss to break their body apart into different objects and elements constantly fighting against their body’s want to dissolve and separate. All three characters embody a different kind of liminality: only their mutual overt love for one another keeps them existing in the between states.
