Category: 26.1 Apocalypse

Invasion of the Dead (Languages): Zombie Apocalypse and the End of Narrative The essay analyzes the narrative and semantic features of the zombie apocalypse in popular culture. It argues that the zombie is a figure for the decoupling of the connection between language and meaning and the loss of what Lyotard called “master narratives.” Rather… Continue reading 26.1 | Elana Gomel

The Vital Collapse—Apocalypse and New Paradise in Eça de Queiroz and Teixeira de Pascoaes Fin-de-siècle Europe seems obsessed by the Janus-faced problem of decay and renewal, halfway between the socio-biological sciences of late positivism and the emerging vitalistic theories, where accumulation, waste and loss of vital energies are a constant reference. In Portugal, Eça de… Continue reading 26.1 | Stephanie Lang

“The Voice of the Bridegroom and the Bride Shall be Heard No More”: Apocalypse, Critique, and Procreation Representations of the end of the world generally involve a totalizing critique of a social-symbolic order seen as corrupt beyond the possibility of reform. But in imagining the end of the world, we imagine also the end of… Continue reading 26.1 | James Berger

Must there be Apocalypse? An Analysis of South Asian Speculative Fiction This article will focus on colonial and postcolonial speculative fiction from South Asia, and ask how, in a geographical region which is culturally and religiously hybrid, we can ‘translate’ the originally Eurocentric terms apocalypse, utopia, and dystopia, and how these can be related. In… Continue reading 26.1 | Barnita Bagchi

On Apocalypse, Monsters and Mourning If apocalypse literally means unveiling or revelation, why is it that so many twenty-first century popular narratives are caught in an endless loop where disaster never gives way to a new dawn? Why is it that they remain stalled at catastrophe and are unable to imagine a future? What is… Continue reading 26.1 | Teresa Heffernan

“Has anyone seen this?”: Imaginary Apocalypse in Jeff Nichols’ Take Shelter This article explores the enduring presence and appeal of apocalyptic narratives in two recent films, Melancholia and in more detail, Take Shelter. After a short discussion on the definition and on the different ways in which apocalyptic discourse is manifested (not only in religious… Continue reading 26.1 | Laura Copier

Still Writing Backwards: Literature After the End of the World This article challenges the conflation in late twentieth-century culture of postmodernism with post-apocalypticism, arguing that the central features of postmodernism—the repeal of the Grand Narrative model of history, the decentering of the subject, and the reimagining of the world as non-anthropocentric—are also central to an… Continue reading 26.1 | Jessica Hurley

The Apocalypse Begins at Home: The Antichrist-As-Child Film This essay argues that the antichrist-as-child film is a unique category of the apocalyptic genre that bridges both secular and religious narratives. While operating under an obvious religious framework, these movies are perhaps the least hopeful of all apocalyptic texts, revealing that corruption has struck the most… Continue reading 26.1 | Karen J. Renner

Post-Apocalypse: A New U.S. Cultural Dominant Over the last three decades, post-apocalypse has become a widespread feature of U.S. culture: in literary and popular fiction and film; in genres from science fiction to young adult fiction; on platforms ranging from print to television and even infants’ toys. Postapocalypse is in fact a cultural dominant in… Continue reading 26.1 | Frederick Buell