Eco-Theory and Annihilation - (Film Theory in Practice) by Evan Gottlieb (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Eco-theory and Annihilation is part of the the Film Theory in Practice series, which blends the explanation of a film theory with the interpretation of a film and provides discrete examples of how film theory can serve as the basis for textual analysis. This book offers a concise introduction to eco-theory in jargon-free language and shows how this theory can be deployed to interpret Alex Garland's controversial film adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer's hit novel Annihilation. This book illuminates the deep history of eco-theory, maps its contemporary coordinates, and demonstrates how it can shed light on Garland's provocative eco-sci-fi thriller"--

Book Synopsis

Eco-theory and Annihilation is part of theFilm Theory in Practice series, which blends the explanation of a film theory with the interpretation of a film and provides discrete examples of how film theory can serve as the basis for textual analysis.This book offers a concise introduction to eco-theory in jargon-free language and shows how this theory can be deployed to interpret Alex Garland's controversial film adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer's hit novel Annihilation.

Eco-theory is one of the most exciting and timely offshoots of contemporary critical theory, but it is too frequently treated as only a recent development. Covering historical developments in nature philosophy, geology, and organic chemistry, as well as contemporary critical methodologies like systems theory and new materialism, Eco-Theory and Annihilation introduces readers to the full extent of eco-theory's lively variations, as well as investigates the complications that arise when those variations are mediated by the generic expectations of filmic science fiction.This book illuminates the deep history of eco-theory, maps its contemporary coordinates, and demonstrates how it can shed light on Garland's provocative eco-sci-fi thriller.

Review Quotes

Eco-Theory and Annihilation provides a masterful, philosophically informed, and up-to-date overview of the expanding field of eco-theory and its major thinkers. In addition, by pairing eco-theory with practical ecocriticism of Garland's film version of VanderMeer's novel Annihilation, it discloses the indispensability of particular contexts of lived experience and practice. Eco-Theory and Annihilationprovides us with new ecological thinking needed to cope with life in the Anthropocene and to rethink what it means to be human.
Monika Kaup, Professor, English, University of Washington, USA

Evan Gottlieb's book takes a deep-time approach to eco-theory in order to draw out, in scene-by-scene, and often shot-by-shot, analyses of the most important implications of Alex Garland's film Annihilation, the willingly unfaithful adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer's novel. Through concepts such as Donna Haraway's making kin, Stacy Alaimo's transcorporeality, and the author's own carbon-heavy masculinity, Garland's film is used to argue for an increased realization of the messy and entangled nature of the world in which humanity finds itself.
Brian Willems, Associate Professor, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split, Croatia

About the Author

Evan Gottlieb is Professor of English in the School of Writing, Literature, and Film at Oregon State University, USA. He is the author of five books, most recently Engagements with Contemporary Literary and Critical Theory (2020) and Romantic Realities: Speculative Realism and British Romanticism (2018).