In this thesis, I analyse four novels by Cormac McCarthy through the lens of Apocalypse theory. Looking at his later, south-western, novels Blood Meridian, All the Pretty Horses, No Country for Old Men and The Road, I examine to what extent they respond to biblical and secular apocalyptic ideologies and narrative tropes. Particular attention is paid to the distinction between biblical apocalypse and secular, or nihilistic, apocalypse. The former draws its framework from the Book of Revelation, and entails a war between Heaven and Hell, the rule of the Anti-Christ and God’s final judgement. Although cataclysmic, a biblical apocalypse also promises worldly renewal through the descent of New Jerusalem. Thus, the end of the world was a desirable, rather than dreaded, event. However, as the world moved into the twentieth century, and we saw modernity give birth to weapons of global destruction, apocalyptic attitudes became pessimistic. The belief that God would save the world from corruption quickly gave way to an entropic end, in which human civilisation will simply collapse into nothingness. I consider McCarthy’s south-west fiction within these opposing apocalyptic ideas, and demonstrate how the four novels build a line of history that begins with Blood Meridian’s Manifest Destiny and ends with The Road’s nuclear bomb. I argue that McCarthy explores both biblical and nihilistic apocalyptic modes before combining them in The Road, which I argue offers a new apocalyptic mode: renewal and salvation without God. Within this context, I argue against common interpretations of McCarthy as a completely nihilistic writer with no vested anthropological concerns. Through these four novels, I instead suggest he negotiates between biblical and nihilistic apocalyptic modes before coming to the conclusion, in The Road, that hope exists.

Abstract: This thesis is a comparative analysis of the apocalypse as a theme in four novels, two American and two Quebecois. Originally a biblical myth, apocalyptic tales are comprised of three narrative aspects defined Bertrand Gervais as Crisis, Time, Meaning / Sense. The four novels are analyzed individually according to these three elements. The American novels correspond to the more traditional pattern of the myth in which the world faces mass destruction followed by the survival of of the chosen-ones who will experience redemption. Contrarily, the two others demonstrate the conceptualization and representation of the traditional myth of the apocalypse towards a modern analogy of transformation of individuals within a profane world; one in which the mythical becomes farcical.||Résumé : Cette étude porte sur l’analyse comparée du thème de 1’apocalypse dans quatre romans, deux Américains et deux Québécois. Mythe biblique a 1’origine, le récit de I ’Apocalypse comporte trois éléments narratifs bien définis par Bertrand Gervais soient la Crise, le Temps et le Sens. Les quatre romans sont envisages, l’un a la suite de l’autre, en fonction de ces trois éléments. II en ressort que deux d’entre eux correspondent au schéma plus traditionnel du mythe avec sa destruction massive du monde suivi du choix d’élus qui auront la chance de connaitre la rédemption. Les deux autres, par contre, démontrent 1’evolution du mythe traditionnel de l’Apocalypse vers une analogie moderne de la transformation des individus dans un monde profane, ou le mythique devient même risible.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2009. / Typescript.

Submitted by Thaisa Person null (thaisa_person@hotmail.com) on 2017-11-15T23:19:58Z No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertação de mestrado Thaisa Person vp.pdf: 1808094 bytes, checksum: bfb1f14f78bb48fa368136356a9136a9 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luiz Galeffi (luizgaleffi@gmail.com) on 2017-11-16T19:54:02Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 person_t_me_sjrp.pdf: 1808094 bytes, checksum: bfb1f14f78bb48fa368136356a9136a9 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-11-16T19:54:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 person_t_me_sjrp.pdf: 1808094 bytes, checksum: bfb1f14f78bb48fa368136356a9136a9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-10-06 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O apocalipse é um tema recorrente na literatura. As imagens e figuras associadas a ele estão presentes em textos tão diversos quanto a Bíblia ou em obras pertencentes ao subgênero romântico “The Last Man” e, atualmente, em textos que se valem de uma nova abordagem para representar o fim do mundo: o “pós-apocalipse”. Esses textos retratam a dissolução de uma sociedade organizada em torno de leis e de princípios de ética e de cidadania que foi devastada por um evento catastrófico. Os que sobreviveram a esse evento devem encontrar formas de continuarem sobrevivendo, mas, agora, em um mundo desolado e sem leis. Dessa forma, o que há de importante nessas narrativas não é necessariamente o evento catastrófico em si, mas, sim, como se estruturará a sociedade pós-evento, regida primordialmente pela lei da sobrevivência. Neste trabalho, propõe-se o estudo do livro pós-apocalíptico The Road (2006), de Cormac McCarthy e a sua adaptação homônima para o suporte fílmico (2009), dirigida por John Hillcoat. As duas obras retratam a luta pela sobrevivência de um pai e de um filho em meio a um mundo pós-apocalíptico. Além de buscar a sua sobrevivência e a do filho, durante a narrativa, o pai exerce o papel mais difícil neste tempo desolador: o papel de ser pai. Pensando-se nas relações de intertextualidade entre o texto adaptado e sua adaptação, este estudo visa investigar como se constitui a representação de espaço e ambientação na obra literária e na obra fílmica. De acordo com a distinção entre espaço e ambientação proposta por Osman Lins (1976), tenciona-se estudar tais elementos narrativos na obra adaptada e na sua adaptação, a fim de demonstrar o quão importantes e contributivos são para o desenvolvimento do conflito central da narrativa, já que em cada ambiente pelos quais os personagens passam, eles são psicologicamente transformados de alguma forma. Além disso, objetiva-se demonstrar como espaço e ambientação são solidários aos outros elementos da narrativa e como dessa relação entre eles resultam fatores significativos para a história. / The apocalypse is a recurrent theme in literature. The images and figures associated with it are present in texts as diverse as the Bible or the works belonging to the romantic subgenre "The Last Man" and, today, in texts that use a new approach to represent the end of the world: the “post-apocalypse”. These texts depict the dissolution of a society organized around laws and principles of ethics and citizenship that was devastated by a catastrophic event. Those who survived this event must find ways to continue to survive, but now in a desolate and lawless world. Thus, what is important in these narratives is not necessarily the catastrophic event itself, but rather, how will the post-event society be structured, governed primarily by the law of survival. In this work, we propose the study of Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic book The Road (2006) and its homonymous adaptation to the film support (2009), directed by John Hillcoat. The two works depict the struggle for the survival of a father and son in the midst of a post-apocalyptic world. In addition to pursuing his survival and that of his son, during the narrative, the father plays the most difficult role in this bleak time: the role of being a father. Thinking about the intertextual relations between the adapted text and its adaptation, this study aims to investigate how the representation of space and ambiance is constituted in the literary work and in the film work. According to the distinction between space and ambiance proposed by Osman Lins (1976), it is intended to study such narrative elements in the adapted work and its adaptation, in order to demonstrate how important and contributory are to the development of the central conflict of narrative. Since in every environment by which the characters pass, they are psychologically transformed in some way. In addition, it aims to demonstrate how solidary space and ambiance are to the other elements of the narrative and how of this relationship between them result significant factors for the story.

This thesis is an investigation of the representation of gender in the many American fiction television programmes dealing with the theme of apocalypse that debuted in the post-9/11 period, specifically between September 2002 and August 2012. It is the first study of this cycle of programmes, as well as the first overview of gender in twenty-first-century American telefantasy. The thesis takes a broadly cultural studies approach, mainly employing close textual analysis as its methodology. The aim of the thesis is, firstly, to point out some of the recurring narrative patterns and motifs relating to gender in the 25 programmes which fall within its remit and, secondly, to consider to what extent it is possible to draw links between the representation of gender in these programmes and contemporary events, especially 9/11 and the ‘war on terror.’ In particular, it aims to discern whether the series in question show the same reversion to traditional notions of masculinity and femininity that critics such as Susan Faludi (2007) have identified in American factual media of the same period. Following the introduction and literature review, Chapter One examines two archetypes of masculinity that were widely invoked by the American media in the aftermath of 9/11, the cowboy and the superhero, as they are respectively portrayed in The Walking Dead (2010- ) and Heroes (2006-2010). Chapter Two explores the representation of father-son relationships in a number of apocalyptic programmes and suggests that they tend to follow a narrative pattern which I refer to as the ‘Prince Hal narrative.’ Chapter Three examines the typical perpetrators of the apocalypses in these shows, patriarchal conspiracies, and the gendered dynamics between the conspirators, their victims and the heroes that attempt to stop them. It focuses on Jericho (2006-2008) and Dollhouse (2009-2010). Chapter Four looks at the conspiracies’ primary victims: young women who have been turned, against their will, into human ‘weapons.’ Finally, the conclusion notes the continuing popularity of apocalypse as a theme on American television, reiterates the previous chapters’ conclusions and draws some more general ones before indicating possible areas for further study.

A group of Canadian films emerged in the 1980s and 1990s that has come to be known as the “Toronto New Wave” (TNW). Most scholarship regarding this “wave” considers the films usually identified with it not as an ideologically or aesthetically cohesive ensemble, but as a disparate mélange engendered by the merely coincidental socio-political, economic, and government policy circumstances that developed at the beginning of the 1980s. Critics who engage more robustly with the cinematic content of these films often make reference to a new global sensibility of the filmmakers and almost universally discuss the theme of urban social alienation that permeates the film narratives. However, the motif of urban social alienation is always understood by these critics as merely a theme in these films. These critics overlook or openly reject the possibility of what anarchist cultural studies refers to as philosophical praxis, an active effort to intervene in cultural meaning-making and to change dominant ideologies. Moreover, the urban alienation theme upon which so many of the TNW narratives trade seems to map very specifically onto more progressive understandings of the term “apocalypse” in the project of philosophical praxis. In the following dissertation, I will argue against the commonly held view that the films of the TNW do not share any significant aesthetic or political unity. In doing so, I will make a case for the marriage of theories of apocalypse with both anarchist cultural philosophy and perception-based psychoanalytical theory as a means to understand a selection of films from within the TNW that I argue are particularly “anarchist-apocalyptic” in their cultural and political work. / Graduate / 2022-08-16

My thesis entails an examination into the presence of the sublime in two novels by Cormac McCarthy: his postmodern western The Crossing and his apocalyptic work The Road. I draw on Kant's aesthetic theory of the sublime, specifically focusing on the Dynamical and Mathematical sublime in relation to the settings of these two narratives. For the sake of brevity, I limit my study to nature's and religion's relation to the sublime in these works. Areas of particular interest to me include: a) How/why the characters of each novel appear unaffected by or even resigned to the lack of control or explanation concerning their surroundings and b) Whether the characters' sense of choice is dependent upon the presence of the sublime in their surroundings. At the thesis' conclusion, I suggest further routes for research, such as the potential connection between the aforementioned Kantian notion of human freedom and a burgeoning concept of morality in McCarthy's later novels, and perhaps a link from McCarthy's sublime and otherworldly slant to literary subgenres such as Magical Realism.

Punch-Drunk, a collection of 43 poems, deals with themes involving masculinity, violence, family, religion, and the apocalypse. As such, the collection shows an array of relationships the speaker has with various men, family members, religious figures, and forces of nature, thereby revealing the ways in which humans navigate loss and come to accept hard truths. Therefore, this collection shows the ways in which humans are not static creatures, but instead beings that are continually changing and achieving some kind of growth. By the end, the speakers have gone on personal journeys in which they learn the fact that love is not always constant, figuring out and coming to terms with your gay identity is a complicated ordeal, familial relationships are not always stable, and the world will sometimes crumble at your feet. / MFA

No description available.

Despite recent scholarship, critics have yet to offer a sustained, interdisciplinary interpretation of John Milton's engagement with millennial ideas that takes into equal account the historical context of seventeenth-century religious and political controversy, the ways in which the pending apocalypse transformed how people imagined and experienced time, and how we see evidence of this cultural shift in Milton's poetry. This dissertation opens new possibilities of understanding Milton's relation to apocalyptic belief in the Revolutionary and Restoration era through an investigation of how millennial thinking cut across a variety of discourses including theology, politics, and science. At its most basic level, my dissertation argues the seventeenth-century anticipation of the apocalypse fundamentally altered the way people imagined time; this new way of conceptualizing temporality changed early modern religious beliefs, conceptions of history, the scientific imagination, and practices of reading philosophy, politics, and literature. My project proposes that the poetry of Milton helps us better understand these extensive cultural transformations. I explore this new understanding of time that is both reflective of discursive changes in the seventeenth century as well as characteristic of Milton's aesthetics, by offering an understanding of Milton's relationship with millennial ideas and their constitutive temporal structure. I argue that, in response to the inevitable and immanent "end of time" suggested by seventeenth-century apocalyptic temporality, Milton's poetry creates an alternative temporality, opening up an experience of time that is not necessarily unidirectional, closed, and speeding towards its end. I suggest that this different experience of time can best be understood through the framework of a temporality explored by contemporary philosophers Walter Benjamin, Jacques Derrida, and Giorgio Agamben--messianic time. Put in its most basic terms, messianic time is a way of thinking about temporality differently, of calling into question our narratives of how time and history function. The messianic invites us to interrogate the notions of closure, certainty, and inevitability that are implicit in our linear, apocalyptic notion of time. Milton's texts continually constitute the possibility of a messianic temporality that can be read as a response to changing conceptions of time in the seventeenth century, millennial anticipation, and the belief that the apocalypse was close at hand. Entering a recent critical conversation regarding Milton's engagement with millennial and apocalyptic thinking, I suggest that we can understand this involvement through the alternative temporality his poetry creates. Each chapter of this dissertation fuses a formalist close reading of the temporality and uncertainties opened up by generic revisions, literary allusions, and rhetorical devices in Milton's poetry with a reading of how ideologically-conflicting interpretations of millennial time are articulated in the text and are reflective of contemporary discourse. I demonstrate how messianic time functions in each text and I prove the importance of this experience as it relates to historical and ideological questions about the millennium. This dissertation contributes to an ongoing conversation regarding how political, religious, scientific, and aesthetic texts are interconnected, and explores the plurality of Milton's ideological positions as they emerge out of the ambivalence and tension in the language of his poetry. In my reading, Milton's texts articulate a way of being in the world--both structural (created through language) and historical (tied to seventeenth-century millennial thinking)--that suggests uncertainty is the condition of knowledge and truth. / English