From Tragedy to Apocalypse in American Literature - Reading to Make Sense of Our Endings

This book argues that imaginative literature is essential to comprehending contemporary threats to human life. Readings of postwar American works by Robert Lowell, Wallace Stevens, Cormac McCarthy, and Norman Maclean show how their literary forms educate us to the reality of a new ground of sensemaking-the apocalyptic sublime.

List of contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Literature as Apocalypse
Chapter One: From Tragedy to Apocalypse in Norman Maclean's Young Men and Fire
Chapter Two: Beyond Morality, Beyond Nihilism: McCarthy's Blood Meridian and the Ethics of Apocalypse
Chapter Three: Mourning Our Myths: The Apocalyptic Elegies of Robert Lowell and Wallace Stevens
Conclusion: Reading At and Against the End of the World
Bibliography
About the Author

About the author

Lindsay Atnip tutors at St. John's College in Santa Fe.

Summary

This book argues that imaginative literature is essential to comprehending contemporary threats to human life. Readings of postwar American works by Robert Lowell, Wallace Stevens, Cormac McCarthy, and Norman Maclean show how their literary forms educate us to the reality of a new ground of sensemaking—the apocalyptic sublime.

Product details

• Authors: Lin Atnip, Lindsay Atnip
• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 15.06.2024
• EAN: 9781666925586
• ISBN: 978-1-66692-558-6
• No. of pages: 186
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; USA, English, LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / Comparative Literature, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 20th Century, Comparative Literature, United States of America, USA, Literary studies: from c 1900 -, Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000