- 252 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF
Postapocalyptic Fantasies in Antebellum American Literature
About this book
Even before the Civil War, American writers were imagining life after a massive global catastrophe. For many, the blank slate of the American continent was instead a wreckage-strewn wasteland, a new world in ruins. Bringing together epic and lyric poems, fictional tales, travel narratives, and scientific texts, Postapocalyptic Fantasies in Antebellum American Literature reveals that US authors who enthusiastically celebrated the myths of primeval wilderness and virgin land also frequently resorted to speculations about the annihilation of civilizations, past and future. By examining such postapocalyptic fantasies, this study recovers an antebellum rhetoric untethered to claims for historical exceptionalism - a patriotic rhetoric that celebrates America while denying the United States a unique position outside of world history. As the scientific field of natural history produced new theories regarding biological extinction, geological transformation, and environmental collapse, American writers responded with wild visions of the ancient past and the distant future.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half-title page
- Series page
- Title page
- Copyright page
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction A New World in Ruins
- Chapter 1 The American Noah
- Chapter 2 Narratives of Extinction and the Last Man
- Chapter 3 The Magnificent Mound Builders
- Chapter 4 History Unearthed
- Chapter 5 Contact at Ktaadn
- Conclusion: The Revolutionary Ruins of the New West
- Postapocalyptic Postscript
- Frequently Cited Works
- Index
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Yes, you can access Postapocalyptic Fantasies in Antebellum American Literature by John Hay in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & North American Literary Criticism. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.