Synopses & Reviews
This volume brings together essays on the cultural expression of apocalypse primarily in anglophone science fiction of the nineteenth and 20th centuries. Focusing on themes, writers, and individual works, the contributors examine the relations between secular and spiritual apocalypse, connecting the fiction and films to their historical moment. Not surprisingly, war recurs throughout this material, as a critical turning-point, fulfillment of prophecy, or prelude to a new age. Among the writers covered are H.G. Wells, Olaf Stapledon, and such contemporary figures as Michael Moorcock, J.G. Ballard, and Storm Constantine.
Review
Recommended for students of literary and cultural studies at all levels.
Choice
Synopsis
This volume brings together essays by specialists in different disciplines on the cultural expression of apocalypse, in particular in anglophone science fiction of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Approaching these works from historical, philosophical, linguistic and literary perspectives, the contributors examine the relationship between secular and spiritual apocalypse, connecting the fiction and films to their historical moment. Not surprisingly, war recurs throughout this material, as a critical turning-point, fulfilment of prophecy, or prelude to a new age. In particular the essays explore the issue of whether modern apocalypse is seen as an ending or a beginning, considered under its political, ethnic and gendered aspects. Among the writers covered are H. G. Wells, Olaf Stapledon and such contemporary figures as Michael Moorcock, J. G. Ballard and Storm Constantine.
Synopsis
Focusing on anglophone science fiction of the 19th and 20th centuries, contributors examine various expressions of apocalypse -- from atomic incineration in the 1984 British film Threads to the apocalypse of slavery in works by African Americans. Topics include Walden as survivalist literature, the contradiction between the Jewish and Christian views of apocalypse and the science fiction viewpoint, and how apocalyptic science fiction helps women and Germans respectively to cope with the specters of sexism and Nazism.
About the Author
David Seed is Reader in English at Liverpool University.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Aspects of Apocalypse--David Seed * The Tales of the Last Days, 1805-3794--I.F. Clarke * The End of Ages--Stephen R.L. Clark * Re-Writing the Christian Apocalypse as a Science-Fictional Event--Edward James * Edwardian Awakenings: H.G. Wells's Apocalyptic Romances (1898-1915)--Patrick Parrinder * Acts of God--Robert Crossley * The Dawn of the Atomic Age--David Seed * Silo Psychosis: Diagnosing America's Nuclear Anxieties--C. Gannon * Pocket Apocalypse: Survivalist Fictions from
Walden to
The Incredible Shrinking Man --George Slusser * "An Unrehearsed Theatre of Technology": Oedipalizations and Vision in Ballard's
Crash --Nick Davis * Disguising Doom: A Study of the Linguistic Feature of Audience Manipulation on Michael Moorcock's
The Eternal Champion --Michael Hoey * Storm, Whirlwind, and Earthquake: Apocalypse and the African American Novel--A. Robert Lee * Stylish Apocalypse: Storm Constantine's
Wraeththu Trilogy --Val Gough * Jews and
Independence Day, Women and
Independence Day : Science Fiction Apocalypse Now Evokes Feminism and Nazism--Marleen Barr * Future/Present: The End of Science Fiction--Veronica Hollinger