apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction

 

Apocalyptic fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction (or, in some cases, the more general category speculative fiction) that is concerned with the end of civilization through nuclear war, plague, or some other general disaster. Post-apocalyptic fiction is set in a world or civilization after such a disaster. The time frame may be immediately after the catastrophe, focusing on the travails or psychology of survivors, or considerably later, often including the theme that the existence of pre-catastrophe civilization has been forgotten (or mythologized). Post-apocalyptic stories often take place in an agrarian, non-technological future world, or a world where only scattered elements of technology remain.

There is a considerable degree of blurring between this form of science fiction and that which deals with false utopias or dystopic societies. A work of apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic fiction might also be called a ruined Earth story, or dying Earth if the apocalypse is sufficiently dire.

The genres gained in popularity after World War II, when the possibility of global annihilation by nuclear weapons entered the public consciousness. However, recognizable apocalyptic novels existed at least since the first quarter of the 19th century, when Mary Shelley's The Last Man was published. Additionally, the subgenres draw on a body of apocalyptic literature, tropes, and interpretations that are millennia old.

History of the subgenre

Ancient predecessors

The roots of modern apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction lie in the apocalyptic literature of the past. Various mythologies and religions around the globe include stories depicting or predicting an end to the world and human society. In the ancient Kingdom of Judah, apocalyptic notions appear in the prophetic literature after the Babylonian captivity, most notably in the Book of Daniel; they remained popular in Roman Judea at the time of the birth of Christianity, and greatly influenced the development and teachings of the new religion, Jesus himself discussing the issue in the Four Gospels. Even as the Christian faith spread through the Roman Empire and beyond, the idea that Jesus would return to his followers during the end times remained central. The first centuries AD saw the creation of various apocalyptic works, the best known of which is the Book of Revelation, due to its inclusion in the New Testament. The beliefs and ideas of this time went on to influence the developing Christian eschatology.

Because of its prominence Revelation influenced nearly every subsequent apocalyptic work in Western culture. However, it was not the only representative of its literary genre produced during the period. The corpus of New Testament apocrypha includes Apocalypses of Peter, Paul, Stephen, and Thomas, as well as two of James and Gnostic Apocalypses of Peter and Paul. Some of these works continued to inform the eschatological imagination of Christianity despite their exclusion from the Bible.

The early Middle Ages saw the development of new apocalyptic works, such as the 7th century Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius, as well as entirely new concepts, like Islamic eschatology, which is related to Christian and Jewish eschatology. A later addition is the Prophecy of the Popes, ascribed to the 12th century Irish saint Malachy, but perhaps a product of the late 16th century.

Most of these works cannot be considered fiction, as they were ostensibly intended to record reality as the authors had experienced it; that is, a factual account of their claimed experiences with divine revelation, rather than a product of their imaginations. Besides Revelation, none of these works are considered scripture by any religious group; and many Christian denominations no longer interpret Revelation as a literal depiction of future events (though every major denomination accepts that it at least literally teaches a future return of Jesus).

Modern works

The first work of modern apocalyptic fiction may be Mary Shelley's 1826 novel The Last Man. The story of a man living in a future world destroyed by plague, it contains the recognizable elements of the subgenre. It is sometimes considered the first science fiction novel, though that distinction is more often given to Shelley's more famous earlier novel, Frankenstein.

The 1885 novel After London by Richard Jefferies is of the type that could be best described as "post-apocalyptic fiction"; after some sudden and unspecified catastrophe has depopulated England, the countryside reverts to nature, and the few survivors to a quasi-medieval way of life. The first chapters consist solely of a loving description of nature reclaiming England: fields becoming overrun by forest, domesticated animals running wild, roads and towns becoming overgrown, the hated London reverting to lake and poisonous swampland. The rest of the story is a straightforward adventure/quest set many years later in the wild landscape and society; but the opening chapters set an example for many later science fiction stories.

The first atomic weapon in fiction appeared in Robert Cromie's "The Crack of Doom", published in 1895. The weapon is not used in that novel, but the significance of its appearance is notable. The genre rose to prominence following World War II, because for the first time it was believed that man had the capacity to destroy his civilization.

Although pandemic diseases have been around since time immemorial, and although some pandemics such as the Black Death gave rise to the fear that disease could bring an end to civilization, disease was apparently not given fictional treatment as the cause of the apocalypse until Jack London's 1912 novella The Scarlet Plague, which coincidentally antedated the Spanish flu by only six years.

Cosy catastrophe is the name given to a style of post-apocalyptic science fiction that was particularly prevalent after the Second World War and among British science fiction writers. The term was coined by Brian Aldiss in Billion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction. A "cosy catastrophe" is typically one in which civilisation (as we know it) comes to an end and everyone is killed except for a handful of survivors, who then set about rebuilding their version of civilisation. English author John Wyndham was the figure at whom Aldiss was primarily directing his remarks, especially his novel The Day of the Triffids. The critic L. J. Hurst dismissed Aldiss's accusations, pointing out that in the book the main character witnesses several murders, suicides, and misadventures, and is frequently in mortal danger himself.^[1]

The Cold War saw increased interest in the subgenres, as the threat of nuclear war became real. Since this measure of destruction was no longer imaginary, some of these new works, such as Nevil Shute's On the Beach and Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon, shun the imaginary science and technology that are the identifying traits of general science fiction. Others include more fantastic elements, such as mutants, alien invaders, or exotic future weapons.

A seminal work in this subgenre was Walter Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959). Many subsequent stories were clearly derivative of this novel. Ideas such as a recrudescent Church (Catholic or other), pseudo-medieval society, and the theme of the rediscovery of the knowledge of the pre-holocaust world were central to this book. Paul Brians published Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction, a study that examines atomic war in fiction published in short stories, novels, and films between 1895 to 1984. Author Stephen King published The Stand, a popular novel which follows the post-apocalypse horror genre, as opposed to the science-fiction genre, in which the world is wiped out by the Captain Trips Virus, and two groups of survivors are at war with one another.

Cormac McCarthy's The Road (2006) is a recent work of post-apocalypse fiction. It won the Pulitzer Prize, a rare thing for a post-apocalyptic or science fiction book. It is unique for being an apparently simple tale and thus a good archetypal example of post-apocalypse fiction, which also adds many beautiful layers of literary themes to this basic and widely used archetype of survival

Cultural views on apocalyptic fiction

For the most part, Western literature and cinema on the apocalypse or in a post-apocalyptic setting tend to follow American mores, with the exception of British apocalyptic fiction. While American apocalyptic and postapocalyptic fiction tend to emphasize the fantastic, with the possibility of world-ending meteor collisions, mutants, and jury-rigged vehicles roaming a desolate countryside, British fiction is more pessimistic in tone.

Post-apocalyptic literature was not as widespread in communist countries as the government prohibited depictions of the nations falling apart. However, some depictions of similar-themed science fiction were accepted by government censors, such as Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (which was later adapted as the movie Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky), made during Russia's Soviet era, which features the bombed-out landscape and survival-based motives of its characters and was inspired in part by the 1957 accident at the Mayak nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. Recently, Wang Lixiong's Yellow Peril was banned in the People's Republic of China because of its depiction of the collapse of the Communist Party of China, but has been widely pirated and distributed in the country.

According to some theorists, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in its modern past has influenced Japanese popular culture to include many apocalyptic themes. Much of Japan's manga and anime is loaded with apocalyptic imagery.^[2] It has, however, also been claimed that disaster - and post-disaster scenarios have a longer tradition in Japanese culture, possibly related to the earthquakes that repeatedly have devastated Japanese cities, and possibly connected to Japanese political history, which includes strict adherence to authority until a sudden and dramatic change. See Meiji Restoration and the earlier ee ja nai ka phenomenon.

Criticism

The use of post-apocalyptic contexts in movies and the typical accompanying imagery, such as endless deserts or damaged cityscapes, clothing made of leather or animal skin, and marauding gangs of bandits, is now common and the subject of frequent parody.

The number of apocalyptic-themed B-movies in the 1980s and 1990s has been attributed to film producers on post-apocalyptic films working around their low production budgets by renting scrapyards, unused factories, and abandoned buildings, saving them the cost of constructing sets. As a result, many films that would have been rejected by major studios on the basis of script or concept ended up being made, while other stories were adapted to a post-apocalyptic setting following the success of the Mad Max series.

See also

• List of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction
• Apocalypticism
• Doomsday event
• Doomsday film
• Dying Earth subgenre

Notes

1. ^ *Essay by L.J. Hurst
2. ^ Murakami, T.: Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture, Yale University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-300-10285-2

References

• Wagar, W. Warren (1982). Terminal Visions: The Literature of Last Things. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253358477. [1]

External links

• Empty World - A website dedicated to apocalyptic fiction
• Post Apocalyptic Media - A website detailing all mediums involving post-apocalyptic fiction
• Sub-Genre Spotlight: Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction - an overview of the sub-genre
• Post-apocalyptic Movie Mania - tongue-in-cheek after-the-fall film reviews
• Quiet Earth - A website dedicated to post apocalyptic media

Donate to Wikimedia