The World Might End, But Love Does Not: An analysis and discussion of desire within apocalypticism with specific reference to Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation (2014) and Peng Shepherd's The Book of M (2019): How does apocalypticism and desire display love as a product of loss? A comparative analysis and discussion of desire within apocalyptic narratives exemplified with specific references to Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation (2014) and Peng Shepherd’s The Book of M (2019).

Rasmussen, Stine Boye

4. term

English, Master

2023

2023-05-31

75 pages

In my master’s thesis, I examine how apocalypticism and desire display love as a product of loss through a comparative analysis and discussion of desire within apocalyptic narratives exemplified through specific references to Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation (2014) and Peng Shepherd’s The Book of M (2019). This research question is the fundament for the thesis, as it explores the notion of desire within apocalypticism and how it depicts through the main characters of the two novels. Love, loss, and apocalypticism combined is a notion that has little previous research, which amplified my aim to interpret the notions in this thesis. Thus, focusing on Shepherd’s and VanderMeer’s novels as examples of apocalyptic fiction with elements of desire entangled in the storyline, I analyze and discuss how Ory, Max, Naz, and the biologist display aspects of desire in narratives regarding the demise of Earth and humanity as readers know it. In my combined analysis and discussion, I scrutinize the notions of apocalypticism and desire in each of the two novels and eventually compare the differences and similarities between the apocalyptic events and the notions of desire portrayed within them. Therefore, based on my analysis and discussion of the notion of love as enhanced by loss, my findings present that within these two novels, the notion of love and apocalypse are both driven by loss as the characters enter the estranged apocalyptic landscapes to search for their missing partners. In the end, however, a union between the subjects and the desired objects is withheld as neither of the characters reunites; thus, depicting how loss is the victorious notion of apocalyptic literature.

In my master’s thesis, I examine how apocalypticism and desire display love as a product of loss through a comparative analysis and discussion of desire within apocalyptic narratives exemplified through specific references to Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation (2014) and Peng Shepherd’s The Book of M (2019). This research question is the fundament for the thesis, as it explores the notion of desire within apocalypticism and how it depicts through the main characters of the two novels. Love, loss, and apocalypticism combined is a notion that has little previous research, which amplified my aim to interpret the notions in this thesis. Thus, focusing on Shepherd’s and VanderMeer’s novels as examples of apocalyptic fiction with elements of desire entangled in the storyline, I analyze and discuss how Ory, Max, Naz, and the biologist display aspects of desire in narratives regarding the demise of Earth and humanity as readers know it. In my combined analysis and discussion, I scrutinize the notions of apocalypticism and desire in each of the two novels and eventually compare the differences and similarities between the apocalyptic events and the notions of desire portrayed within them. Therefore, based on my analysis and discussion of the notion of love as enhanced by loss, my findings present that within these two novels, the notion of love and apocalypse are both driven by loss as the characters enter the estranged apocalyptic landscapes to search for their missing partners. In the end, however, a union between the subjects and the desired objects is withheld as neither of the characters reunites; thus, depicting how loss is the victorious notion of apocalyptic literature.

Apocalypse ; Desire

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