Title Flowers of time : on postapocalyptic fiction / Mark Payne

Published Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2020]

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Description 1 online resource (x, 192 pages) Contents Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Postapocalyptic Pastoral -- 1. The Apocalyptic Cosmos -- 2. The Persistence of Memory -- 3. Survivalist Anthropology -- Conclusion: Landscape with Figures -- Works Cited -- Index Summary "For all of its current popularity, contemporary apocalyptic fiction-novels set during or after events that devastate the world as we know it-is part of a long tradition that includes the Biblical story of Noah, the epic of Gilgamesh, and the Works and Days of the ancient Greek poet Hesiod, as well as the vast array of modern examples. In this short, essayistic book, the author focuses on twentieth- and twenty-first-century fiction in which new forms of life emerge from catastrophe, how the survivors adapt to the altered conditions of existence, and the various ways in which the past asserts its claims on them-both the immediate past of the world that was lost, and the deep past of prehistory and imagination that returns with this loss. In Payne's view, "post-apocalyptic fiction is political theory in fictional form. Instead of producing arguments in favor of a particular form of life, it shows what it would be like to live that life." In a world in which there is no more capitalism and no more nation state, characters have to relearn basic survival skills and return to earlier forms of social life. They acquire new capabilities, which bring new satisfactions they could not have anticipated in the world that is gone. In the post-apocalyptic world, they disentangle themselves from old ways of thinking and their misconceptions of human happiness. In this way, Payne argues, post-apocalyptic fiction is the pastoral of our time. The individualism and small-scale social relations of post-apocalyptic fiction are not naïve, but instead the necessary ground for choosing the freedoms and capabilities readers would want to see preserved in any future collective that might emerge from them"-- Provided by publisher Analysis Apocalypse and Post-Politics Claire Curtis Gilgamesh Heather Hicks Hesiod John Hay Margaret Atwood Mary Manjikian Mary Shelley Post-Apocalyptic Culture Postapocalyptic Fantasies in Antebellum American Literature Postapocalyptic Fiction and the Social Contract Teresa Heffernan Terminal Vision: The Literature of Last Things The Last Man The Post-Apocalyptic Novel in the Twenty-First Century Ursula Le Guin Warren Wagar ancient apocalypse catastrophe civilization freedom maroon memory myth nature pastoral philosophical training primitive survival practice survival survivalist anthropology survivalist fiction the apocalyptic cosmos zombie Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes In English Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on September 18, 2020) Subject Apocalypse in literature. Apocalyptic fiction -- History and criticism End of the world in literature. Dystopias -- History LITERARY CRITICISM / Science Fiction & Fantasy Apocalypse in literature Dystopias End of the world in literature Genre/Form Electronic books Criticism, interpretation, etc. History Apocalyptic fiction Form Electronic book LC no. 2020002322 ISBN 0691206406 9780691206400

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