Apocalypse in American Literature and Culture

The essays in this book reflect upon the central role that the apocalypse has played in American literature and culture.

This book is for students and instructors of American literature and culture. It features two dozen scholarly essays on different aspects of the theme of apocalypse in America, from the colonial era to the present. Imagining the end of the world has always been a popular pastime, especially in America.The idea of America has always encouraged apocalyptic visions. The 'American Dream' has not only imagined the prospect of material prosperity; it has also imagined the end of the world. 'Final forecasts' constitute one of America's oldest literary genres, extending from the eschatological theology of the New England Puritans to the revolutionary discourse of the early republic, the emancipatory rhetoric of the Civil War, the anxious fantasies of the atomic age, and the doomsday digital media of today. For those studying the history of America, renditions of the apocalypse are simply unavoidable. This book brings together two dozen essays by prominent scholars that explore the meanings of apocalypse across different periods, regions, genres, registers, modes, and traditions of American literature and culture. It locates the logic and rhetoric of apocalypse at the very core of American literary history.