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After the End: Representations of Post-Apocalypse - Tapa blanda

Berger, James

 
9780816629336: After the End: Representations of Post-Apocalypse
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ISBN 10: 0816629331 ISBN 13: 9780816629336
Editorial: University of Minnesota Press, 1999

Sinopsis

Explores the cultural function of the concept of “the end.”

Apocalyptic thought is hardly unique to the end of the twentieth century; it’s been a fixture of American culture for decades. Currently, the media are rife with omens and signs, and we’re bombarded with warnings that “the end is near.” But as James Berger argues here, the end never comes. There is always something left.

In this study of the cultural pursuit of the end and what follows, Berger contends that every apocalyptic depiction leaves something behind, some mixture of paradise and wasteland. Combining literary, psychoanalytic, and historical methods, Berger mines these depictions for their weight and influence on current culture. He applies wide-ranging evidence-from science fiction to Holocaust literature, from Thomas Pynchon to talk shows, from American politics to the fiction of Toni Morrison-to reveal how representations of apocalyptic endings are indelibly marked by catastrophic histories.

These post-apocalyptic visions reveal as much about our perception of the past as they do about conceptions of the future. Berger examines the role of such historical crises as slavery, the Holocaust, and the Vietnam War and describes how these traumas continue to generate cultural symptoms. The shadow of impending apocalypse darkens today’s vision of the future, but it’s a familiar shadow: traumas we have already experienced as a culture are recycled into visions of new endings. Our “endings” are already after the end.

Berger demonstrates that post-apocalyptic representations are both symptoms and therapies. Contemporary culture continually draws on these traumatic histories, trying to forget, remember, deny, and recover. After the End puts these visions in context, revealing them in some cases as dangerous evasions, in others as crucial tools for cultural survival.

ISBN 0-8166-2932-3 Cloth £00.00 $47.95xx

ISBN 0-8166-2933-1 Paper £00.00 $18.95x

248 Pages 5 7/8 x 9 March

Translation Inquiries: University of Minnesota Press

"Sinopsis" puede pertenecer a otra edición de este libro.

Acerca del autor

James Berger is assistant professor of English at Hofstra University.

"Sobre este título" puede pertenecer a otra edición de este libro.

Editorial
University of Minnesota Press
Año de publicación
1999
Idioma
Inglés
ISBN 10 
0816629331
ISBN 13 
9780816629336
Encuadernación
Tapa blanda
Número de páginas
304
Contacto del fabricante
no disponible
Persona responsable
no disponible