Date of Award
Spring 5-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
English
First Advisor
Renee Hudson
Second Advisor
Ian Barnard
Third Advisor
Joanna Levin
Abstract
This thesis project analyzes the novel Annihilation (2014) by Jeff VanderMeer and situates the biologist’s transformation and transition in the book in a trans ecological framework. By expanding on foundational texts such as Jackson Jesse Nash’s “‘I Am Not Returning Home’: A Transgender Reading of Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation”, this paper argues that representations of fungus in Annihilation present a possibility for trans futurity rooted in transformation, ecological entanglement, and a rejection of binary thought. Additional articles from Transgender Studies Quarterly and A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies orient this fungal transformation in the larger framework of rejecting normative embodiment, understanding and embracing transhumanism, and moving towards mycelial convergence. I turn to new materialism, particularly theory built by Mel Y. Chen and Eva Hayward, in order to theorize a trans ecology that is agential and capacious, rather than merely existing in passive relation to the human. In the “Trans Ecologies” section of the paper, I refer to Chen’s Animacies to demonstrate how linguistic and cognitive shifts precede and create the conditions for physical transition, and how Area X is an active participant in this transformative process. By weaving together trans studies, new materialism, the fungal, and Annihilation, I reimagine Area X as a space for radical trans possibility, one where normative boundaries and obstacles are reconfigured and decomposed.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Enriquez-Morales, Miles Nives Qapevewni. (De)composing Transhumanisms: Fungal and Trans Ecologies in Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation. 2026. Chapman University, MA Thesis. Chapman University Digital Commons,https://doi.org/10.36837/chapman.000740