Post-Apocalyptic Culture: Modernism, Postmodernism, and the Twentieth-Century Novel

by Teresa Heffernan

In Post-Apocalyptic Culture , Teresa Heffernan poses the what is at stake in a world that no longer believes in the power of the end? Although popular discourse increasingly understands apocalypse as synonymous with catastrophe, historically, in both its religious and secular usage, apocalypse was intricately linked to the emergence of a better world, to revelation, and to disclosure. In this interdisciplinary study, Heffernan uses modernist and post-modernist novels as evidence of the diminished faith in the existence of an inherently meaningful end. Probing the cultural and historical reasons for this shift in the understanding of apocalypse, she also considers the political implications of living in a world that does not rely on revelation as an organizing principle. With fascinating readings of works by William Faulkner, Don DeLillo, Ford Madox Ford, Toni Morrison, E.M. Forster, Salman Rushdie, D.H. Lawrence, and Angela Carter, Post-Apocalyptic Culture is a provocative study of how twentieth-century culture and society responded to a world in which a belief in the end had been exhausted.

Genres: Nonfiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published December 4, 2008

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure why this was a monograph. It feels a little like Heffernan found a clever way to interplay "apocalypse" and "teleology" and made an argument that we've already heard 1000 times with different words. The chapters weren't particularly well integrated to make a larger argument, though I enjoyed some of the analysis. The only problem was, once I enjoyed the analysis, I had to work hard to find tenuous connections to "post-apocalyptic culture." Ah, the danger of buzzwords.

[Heather Clitheroe · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit post-apocalypse light, I'm afraid: Heffernan's choice of texts for analysis are not especially illuminating. I was looking for more on the actual narratives and literary texts of post-apocalyptic settings. I got 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' instead.

A bit heavy on the commas, too. Blech.

[Laurie McKickass · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've found Heffernan's text invaluable to my own research, though her structure and formal choices toward the end of the book keep me from rating the whole thing higher.

[Samantha Eldredge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful and well written!