Apocalypse in American Literature and Culture

The essays in this book reflect upon the central role that the apocalypse has played in American literature and culture.

John Hay (Edited by)

9781108493840, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 December 2020

350 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2.5 cm, 0.63 kg

The idea of America has always encouraged apocalyptic visions. The 'American Dream' has not only imagined the prospect of material prosperity; it has also imagined the end of the world. 'Final forecasts' constitute one of America's oldest literary genres, extending from the eschatological theology of the New England Puritans to the revolutionary discourse of the early republic, the emancipatory rhetoric of the Civil War, the anxious fantasies of the atomic age, and the doomsday digital media of today. For those studying the history of America, renditions of the apocalypse are simply unavoidable. This book brings together two dozen essays by prominent scholars that explore the meanings of apocalypse across different periods, regions, genres, registers, modes, and traditions of American literature and culture. It locates the logic and rhetoric of apocalypse at the very core of American literary history.

Introduction. The United States of apocalypse John Hay
Part I. America as Apocalypse: 1. The apocalypse of settler colonialism and the case for the americocene Jared Hickman
2. Apocalyptic violence in visual media Mark Noble
3. Revelation, secret knowledge, and 9/11 conspiracy theory Lindsey Michael Banco
4. Decolonial eschatologies of native American literatures Adam Spry
Part II. American Apocalypse in (and out of) History: 5. The puritans prepare for the second coming Lindsay DiCuirci
6. The American revolution as extinction and rebirth Christen Mucher
7. Race, American enlightenment, and the end times Mark Alan Mattes
8. Sentimental premonitions and antebellum spectacle Melissa Gniadek
9. Antebellum anticipations of annihilation Gordon Fraser
10. The apocalyptic fury of the civil war Timothy Donahue
11. Apocalyptic form in the American Fin de Siècle Jane Fisher
12. The ruins of American modernism Alastair Morrison
13. Mutually assured destruction in cold war/postwar America Jacqueline Foertsch
14. Postmodern American literature at the end of history Timothy Parrish
15. Ecology, ethics, and the apocalyptic lyric in recent American poetry Jennifer Ashton
16. Disaster response in post-2000 American apocalyptic fiction Heather J. Hicks
Part III. Varieties of Apocalyptic Experience: 17. New history for a new earth Kevin M. Modestino
18. W. E. B. Du Bois's apocalyptic ambivalence Autumn Womack
19. The empty cities of urban apocalypse Nick Yablon
20. The planetary futures of eco-apocalypse Ursula K. Heise
21. The last laughs of doomsday humor Frances McDonald
22. The catastrophic end-games of young adult literature Claire P. Curtis
23. Apocalyptic trauma and the politics of mourning a world Irene Visser
24. Posthuman postapocalypse Matthew A. Taylor
Further reading.

Subject Areas: Environmentalist thought & ideology [RNA], Literary reference works [DSR], Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary theory [DSA]