University thesis:
Dissertation, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, 2015
Footnote:
Description:
Zusammenfassung: The idea of the end of the world has a long tradition in the history of civilization. Secularized speculations about the end of the world have been a part of public discourse in Britain ever since the 19th century. This study investigates fiction about the potential end of humankind, written and produced by British writers and filmmakers from the 1890s to the beginning of the 21st century. Martin Hermann argues that British apocalyptic fiction is deeply embedded in the cultural context of its respective era. Applying ideas from Michel Foucault’s The Archaeology of Knowledge and analyzing works by H. G. Wells, John Wyndham, John Brunner, Stephen Baxter and other, less remembered authors of speculative fiction, Hermann traces a history of fear in British culture, identifying the discursive formations that have shaped the apocalyptic discourse in Britain over the last 120 years. He contends that these formations run alongside the great historical divides of the 20th and 21st century