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Imagining the Apocalypse
Fiction on the end of the world and whatcomes after
 
Contents
Articles
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction1Science fiction6Dying Earth subgenre22Risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth25Nuclear holocaust34Apocalypse36Apocalypticism40Book of Revelation46
The Last Man
65After London72
On the Beach (novel)
80
 Alas, Babylon
83
 A Canticle for Leibowitz
86
The Road 
95
The City of Ember 
99
References
Article Sources and Contributors102Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors106
Article Licenses
License107
 
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction1
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction
Apocalyptic fiction
is a sub-genre of science fiction that is concerned with the end of civilization due to acatastrophic event such as nuclear war, pandemic, impact event, Cybernetic revolt, Supernatural phenomena,resource depletion or some other general disaster.
Post-apocalyptic fiction
is set in a world or civilization after sucha disaster. The time frame may be immediately after the catastrophe, focusing on the travails or psychology of survivors, or considerably later, often including the theme that the existence of pre-catastrophe civilization has beenforgotten (or mythologized). Post-apocalyptic stories often take place in an agrarian, non-technological future world,or a world where only scattered elements of technology remain. There is a considerable degree of blurring betweenthis form of science fiction and that which deals with false utopias or dystopic societies.The genres gained in popularity after World War II, when the possibility of global annihilation by nuclear weaponsentered the public consciousness. However, recognizable apocalyptic novels existed at least since the first quarter of the 19th century, when Mary Shelley's
The Last Man
was published.
[1]
Additionally, the subgenres draw on a bodyof apocalyptic literature, tropes, and interpretations that are millennia old.
Ancient predecessors
Numerous societies, including the Babylonian and Judaic traditions, have produced apocalyptic literature andmythology, some of which dealt with the end of the world and of human society.
[2]
The scriptural story of Noah andhis Ark describes the end of a corrupt civilization and its replacement with a remade world. The first centuries ADsaw the creation of various apocalyptic works; the best known (due to its inclusion in the New Testament) is theBook of Revelation (from which the word apocalypse originated, meaning "revelation of secrets"), which is repletewith prophecies of destruction.
[2]
In the study of religious works, apocalyptic texts or stories, are those that disclosehidden secrets either by taking an individual literally into the heavens or into the future. Most often these revelationsabout heaven and the future are used to explain why some currently occurring event is taking place.
[3]
Outside of the corpus of New Testament apocrypha also includes apocalypses of Peter, Paul, Stephen, and Thomas,as well as two of James and Gnostic Apocalypses of Peter and Paul. The beliefs and ideas of this time, includingapocalyptic accounts excluded from the Bible, influenced the developing Christian eschatology.Further apocalyptic works appeared in the early Middle Ages. The 7th century Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodiusincludes themes common in Christian eschatology; the Prophecy of the Popes has been ascribed to the 12th centuryIrish saint Malachy, but could possibly date from the late 16th century. Islamic eschatology, related to Christian andJewish eschatological traditions, also emerged from the 7th century. Ibn al-Nafis's 13th century
Theologus Autodidactus
, an Arabic novel, used empirical science to explain Islamic eschatology.
[4]
Modern works
Pre-1900 works
The first work of modern apocalyptic fiction may be Mary Shelley's 1826 novel
The Last Man
, in which the lastportion becomes the story of a man living in a future world emptied of humanity by plague.
[1]
Containingrecognizable elements of this subgenre, the novel is sometimes considered the first science fiction novel, though thatdistinction is more often given to Shelley's more famous and earlier novel,
 Frankenstein
.The 1885 novel
 After London
by Richard Jefferies is of the type that could be best described as genuine"post-apocalyptic fiction"; after some sudden and unspecified catastrophe has depopulated England, the countrysidereverts to nature, and the few survivors to a quasi-medieval way of life. The first chapters consist solely of a lovingdescription of nature reclaiming England: fields becoming overrun by forest, domesticated animals running wild,roads and towns becoming overgrown, the hated London reverting to lake and poisonous swampland. The rest of the
of 00

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