1st Edition
Broken Mirrors Representations of Apocalypses and Dystopias in Popular Culture
Dystopian stories and visions of the Apocalypse are nothing new; however in recent years there has been a noticeable surge in the output of this type of theme in literature, art, comic books/graphic novels, video games, TV shows, etc. The reasons for this are not exactly clear; it may partly be as a result of post 9/11 anxieties, the increasing incidence of extreme weather and/or environmental anomalies, chaotic fluctuations in the economy and the uncertain and shifting political landscape in the west in general. Investigating this highly topical and pervasive theme from interdisciplinary perspectives this volume presents various angles on the main topic through critical analyses of selected works of fiction, film, TV shows, video games and more.
Introduction: Welcome to the Beginning of the End of Everything
Joe Trotta and Houman Sadri
Chapter 1: A Light that Never Goes Out: Bare Life and the Possibility of Ethics in McCarthy’s The Road
Zlatan Filipovic
Chapter 2: Hopeful Dystopias? Figures of Hope in the Brazilian Science Fiction Series 3%
Michael Godhe
Chapter 3: Hopeful Hybridities: Transformative Interspecies Relationships in Dystopian and Post-Apocalyptic Visual Narratives
Ariel Khan
Chapter 4: Dystopia and Utopia After Darwin: Using Evolution to Explain Edward Bulwer Lytton’s The Coming Race
Emelie Jonsson
Chapter 5: Is this the Futu.re?: Russian Cosmism and the Construction of an Immor(t)al Utopia
Iril Hove Ullestad
Chapter 6: The Mexican Sicario Against the End of the World
Gabriela Mercado
Chapter 7: Post-apocalyptic Play: Representations of the End of the City in Video Games
Emma Fraser
Chapter 8: The Future in Ruins: The Uses of Derelict Buildings and Monuments in Post-Apocalyptic Film and Literature
Jerry Määttä
Chapter 9: The Zombie as a Pronoun: What Pronouns are Used and Why?
Linda Flores Ohlson
Chapter 10: What can a corpus tell us about Apocalyptic/Dystopian Texts
Joe Trotta
Chapter 11: Original Sin as Salvation: The Apocalyptic Boon in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials
Houman Sadri
Biography
Joe Trotta is Associate Professor of English Linguistics at the Department of Languages and Literatures, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Joe’s research has shifted from traditional linguistics to focusing nearly exclusively on the use of English in popular media. He is the founder and chair of the [GotPop] Research Group and the co-host of the GotPop Popular Culture Podcast.
Dr. Zlatan Filipovic is Associate Professor in English and Comparative Literature at the Department of Languages and Literatures, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He has a PhD in English and Comparative Literature from Goldsmiths, University of London and has published extensively on deconstruction and affect in literary writing.
Houman Sadri is a PhD candidate and teacher of English Literature, at the Department of Languages and Literatures, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He is the co-host of the GotPop Popular Culture Podcast.
