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The essays in this book reflect upon the central role that the apocalypse has played in American literature and culture.
List of contents
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.
About the author
John Hay is Associate Professor of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he specializes in nineteenth-century American literature. He is the author of Postapocalyptic Fantasies in Antebellum American Literature (2017) and a recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies.
Summary
This book is for students and instructors of American literature and culture. It features two dozen scholarly essays on different aspects of the theme of apocalypse in America, from the colonial era to the present. Imagining the end of the world has always been a popular pastime, especially in America.
