/lit/ - Literature

English 345: Apocalypse and Revelation in Contemporary American Literature

This will be a survey course exploring the themes of apocalypse and revelation in post-WWII American literature and how they reflect the specific social and cultural anxieties of their time.

Reading List
~A Canticle for Liebowitz - Walter M. Miller Jr. (1959)
~Silent Spring - Rachel Carson (1962)
~Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut (1963)
~Slouching Towards Bethlehem [essay] - Joan Didion (1967)
~The Stand - Stephen King (1978)
~The Road - Cormac McCarthy (2006)
~Lesser Apocalypses - Bayard Godsave (2012)


There are no prerequisites for this course.

Super late to the party but what the hell. I've been tweaking this opening for months.

>The sun shines but brings no warmth to the Russian tundra. The land is flat and desolate for miles in every direction. Nothing to punctuate the surface of the earth but the occasional bird in flight. The cold white sun rests at its zenith, impartial. From somewhere on the surface the earth begins to move. An enormous door begins to slide horizontally, an empty patch in an already empty landscape. Steam rises from this hole in the earth. Soft hissing. Mechanical subterranean voices engaged in a rhythmic, toneless pattern. A countdown.
>A roar. From this patch of earth something begins to rise, monolithic, gargantuan. The roar gets louder. It echoes across the frozen landscape, bleeding into the otherwise soundless air. This great steel obelisk rises, escapes the earth with an enormous plume of smoke building beneath it, lifting it to the sky. It continues to rise, ripping through clouds like Lucifer being pulled through the heavens. An unholy constant roar, a great animal bellowing through the noon air. The earth falls away with increasing speed as the machine accelerates, its landing place predetermined, its purpose finally coming to realization.
>In the distance the horizon is dotted with identical white plumes, stems to headless flowers growing from the frozen white ground. All heading west, fleeing the sun. All mindlessly carrying out their hideous orders. Air whips around their metal hulls. Russia falls away.
>All across Europe people look east to the sunrise and watch as these spearlike clouds grow from the horizon, cleaving the skies. Too far away to be heard. But all traveling in perfectly uniform direction. Westward, ever westward. Toward the morning beyond the horizon. Back in time. Their trails mark the beginning of the last day of history. Not four horsemen, but four thousand, all riding under the clarion call of mindless, indifferent destruction. All poised to rend the earth asunder. The Dead Hand lifts its fingers and spreads them across the skies. In the European streets below masses of humanity begin to understand. Sirens go up, too far and too quiet for the missiles to hear.
>April 22nd. The cruelest month. The metal lilacs breeding out of the dead land. These rockets continue toward the darkening horizon, heralding the final dawn. Roaring into daybreak with inchoate, primal fury. Hurtling headlong, full of anger, into the distant night.

English 345: Apocalypse and Revelation in Contemporary American Literature

This will be a survey course exploring the themes of apocalypse and revelation in post-WWII American literature and how they reflect the specific social and cultural anxieties of their time.

Reading List
~The Nine Billion Names of God [short story] - Arthur C. Clarke (1953)
~A Canticle for Liebowitz - Walter M. Miller Jr. (1959)
~Silent Spring - Rachel Carson (1962)
~Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut (1963)
~Slouching Towards Bethlehem [essay] - Joan Didion (1967)
~The Stand - Stephen King (1978)
~The Road - Cormac McCarthy (2006)
~Lesser Apocalypses - Bayard Godsave (2012)
~Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel (2014)

There are no prerequisites for this course.

Apocalypse and Revelation in Post-War American Literature
Description: A survey course of the apocalyptic narrative in contemporary American literature
Prerequisites: none required

Reading List:

A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M Miller, Jr. (1960)
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut (1963)
The Stand - Stephen King (1978)
Scorch Atlas - Blake Butler (2009)
Lesser Apocalypses - Bayard Godsave (2012)
Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel (2014)