Apocalyptic Fiction

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Description

Visions of post-apocalyptic worlds have proved to be irresistible for many 21st-century writers, from literary novelists to fantasy and young adult writers. Exploring a wide range of texts, from the works of Margaret Atwood, Cormac McCarthy, Tom Perrotta and Emily St. John Mandel to young adult novels such as Suzanne Collinss The Hunger Games series, this is the first critical introduction to contemporary apocalyptic fiction. Exploring the cultural and political contexts of these writings and their echoes in popular media, Apocalyptic Fiction also examines how contemporary apocalyptic texts looks back to earlier writings by the likes of Mary Shelley, H.G. Wells and J.G. Ballard. Apocalyptic Fiction includes an annotated guide to secondary readings, making this an essential guide for students of contemporary fiction at all levels.

Reviews

Tate traces a diverse array of tropes as they surface in this century's most indelible doomsday fantasies ... Fluent and perceptive. * Times Literary Supplement *
This is a consistently suggestive, scholarly and readable study of the literature of apocalypse both inside and outside science fiction. * Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction *
A stimulating, lucid and compact study and guide to further research on twenty-first century British, US, and Canadian writing about the end times. * The Wellsian: The Journal of the H. G. Wells Society *

Author Bio

Andrew Tate is Reader in Literature, Religion and Aesthetics in the Department of English & Creative Writing at Lancaster University, UK. His previous books include Contemporary Fiction and Christianity (2008) and, co-authored with Arthur Bradley, The New Atheist Novel (2010) and, as co-editor, Literature and the Bible: A Reader (2013).