The End of Our World: Apocalypse Fiction

Abstract

This essay discusses the history of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction using critical theory, a close examination of relevant novels and short stories, and personal anecdotes. It concludes that post-apocalyptic literature can be see as comforting rather than hellish, since it provides an “after” for an cataclysmic event, no matter how dismal. The world does not end; it continues, just in a different form.