| Descript |
xx, 278 p. ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliog. |
Includes bibliography (p. 255-272) and index. |
| Contents |
Contents : Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Pt. I: Thinking the Post-Apocalypse: 1. Post-Apocalyptic Rhetorics: How to Speak after the End of Language -- 2. Trauma and the End of the World -- Pt. II: Aftermaths of the Holocaust: 3. Representing the Holocaust after the End of Testimony -- 4. The Absent Referent: Derrida and the Holocaust -- Pt. III: American Post-Apocalypses: 5. "Achieved Utopias": The Reaganist Post-Apocalypse -- 6. Not the Last Word: Trauma's Post-Apocalyptic Returns -- Epilogue. |
| Summary |
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. |
| Subject |
United States -- Civilization -- 1970-
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Catastrophical, The.
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Apocalyptic literature -- History and criticism.
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American literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism.
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Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in literature.
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Judaism and literature -- United States.
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Apocalypse in motion pictures.
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| ISBN |
9780816629329 (hbk. : alk. paper) |
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0816629323 (hbk. : alk. paper) |
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9780816629336 (pbk. : alk. paper) |
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0816629331 (pbk. : alk. paper) |
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