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.

[pt] O Antropoceno, signo de um tempo de profundas mutações e colapsos, o nosso tempo do mundo, tem assistido ao ressurgimento do uso abundante da palavra apocalipse. Este termo fundamental da escatologia ocidental, originariamente referido ao Apocalipse de João, último livro da Bíblia cristã, tem sido empregado – mesmo por acadêmicos e cientistas – com o sentido comum de grande e generalizada destruição, ou, se quisermos, fim do mundo. No contexto da civilização ocidental, no entanto, a influência da interpretação canônica do Livro do Apocalipse, consolidada pelos chamados Pais da Igreja na emergência da Era Comum, se constituiu também em um dos pilares de sustentação do regime de verdade, da noção de tempo e do sentido de História, que, justamente no Antropoceno, entram em crise agônica. Nesta tese, um estudo filosófico que considero preambular, propõe-se uma reflexão a partir de referências não normativas – logo, dissonantes – sobre a mensagem, as disputas e o conturbado processo de recepção do Livro do Apocalipse na cultura ocidental, que ele também contribuiu para definir. Recusando a adesão aos sistemas hermenêuticos que, como parte da escatologia secularizada na Modernidade, foram apropriados em termos políticos pela esquerda como utopia milenarista e, de forma cada vez mais perigosa, pela direita, como justificação para a violência cristã, a tese se propõe a apresentar uma leitura vinculada aos esforços contemporâneos do pensamento crítico, que contribua para convocar uma aliança imanente entre humanos e não humanos, que ajude a frear os fins de tantos mundos ameaçados pelo avanço insustentável das formas capitalistas de predação material e ontológica do planeta. / [en] The Anthropocene, sign of a time of survival and profound collapses, our time of the world, has witnessed the resurgence of the abundant use of the word apocalypse. This fundamental term of Western eschatology, originally referred to the Apocalypse of John, the last book of the Christian Bible, has been used – even by academics and scientists – with the common sense of great and generalized destruction, or, if you like, end of the world. In the context of Western civilization, however, the influence of the canonical interpretation of the Book of Revelation, consolidated by the so-called Fathers of the Church in the emergence of the Common Era, also constituted one of the pillars of support for the regime of truth, the notion of time and of the sense of History, which, precisely in the Anthropocene, are intertwined in an agonizing crisis. In this thesis, a philosophical study that I consider preambular, a reflection is proposed based on non-normative references – therefore, dissonant – on the message, the disputes and the troubled process of reception of the Book of Revelation in Western culture, which it also contributed to define. Refusing to adhere to the hermeneutical systems that, as part of secularized eschatology in Modernity, were appropriated in political terms by the left as a millenarian utopia and, in an increasingly dangerous way, by the right, as a justification for Christian violence, the thesis proposes to present a reading linked to contemporary efforts of critical thinking that contributes to convening an immanent alliance between humans and non-humans. An alliance that helps to curb the ends of so many worlds threatened by the unsustainable advance of capitalist forms of material and ontological predation of the planet.