Literary Analysis of VanderMeer’s Annihilation
Assignment
Select a motif—a recurrent image, word, object, phrase, or action—in Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation that you understand to be directly related to the themes of environment, encounter, and/or entanglement. You should be able to identify at least two passages in the novel in which your motif occurs. Construct an interpretive thesis about the significance of the motif to the novel as a whole and provide specific textual evidence in support of your argument in the form of summary, paraphrase, and direct quotation of your selected passages.
As you develop your ideas and claims, you may find it helpful to explore the following questions: Why and how do literary features of the selected passages—including character, setting, plot, syntax, diction, imagery, and figurative devices—contribute to the development of your selected motif? How do the narrator’s point of view, sequencing of events, and decisions about what to reveal and not to reveal to the reader, contribute to the mood or tone of your selected passages? In what ways do the conventions of genres like speculative fiction, cli-fi, the New Weird, or cosmic horror inflect your selected passages?
All process writing components of this essay as determined by your seminar instructor, including a mandatory working draft, must be turned in to receive a passing grade. The final essay will be 3–5 pages in length, should follow MLA formatting and citation conventions (see Chapter 8 and the Appendix to the Humanities Core Handbook for specific instructions), and will be allocated 35% of your total writing grade.
Learning Goals
In successfully completing this assignment, writers will:
- Develop a specific, arguable, and complex thesis that reflects an interpretation of the topic and is supported through unified and coherent argumentation throughout the essay
- Devise logical and effective sequencing of ideas that leads to essay-level cohesion; produce body paragraphs organized around topic sentences that link to the thesis
- Construct transitions between paragraphs that are signaled both formally and conceptually
- Craft a rhetorically effective introduction and conclusion to the essay
- Apply the conventions of literary analysis to two or more passages of the novel (close reading, narrative, stylistic, and figurative analysis) and make part-to-whole connections that reflect thematic engagement with the primary source
- Select, explain, and integrate evidence from the primary source using summary, paraphrase, and quotation; follow responsible attribution and citation practices in the body text and in the Works Cited page
- Express ideas clearly and effectively in language that reflects thorough revision and awareness of voice
Required Reading
You must read the following to successfully navigate the writing process of this assignment:
Martin, Theodore. “Genre.” Humanities Core Handbook: Environment | Encounter | Entanglement 2025–2026. Macmillan Learning, 2025, pp. 131–42.
Garceau, Ben. “Revision, Organization, and Transitions.” Humanities Core Handbook: Environment | Encounter | Entanglement 2025–2026. Macmillan Learning, 2025, pp. 143–62.
VanderMeer, Jeff. Annihilation. 10th Anniversary ed., MCD/Picador, 2024. [ISBN 9781250824042]
