Continuing our series on the apocalypse, we discuss the chapter “Dying of Happiness: Utopia at the End of this World” in Maria Manuel Lisboa’s book “The End of the World: Apocalypse and its Aftermath in Western Culture” and the idea that utopia itself might bring about the apocalypse.
We discuss the function of wide-scale destruction and ruins in apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic films.
We discuss a book chapter by Dina Khapaeva titled “Killing Humanity – Anthropocentrism and Apocalypse in Contemporary Cinema” from the edited volume “The Age of Spectacular Death” edited by Michael Hviid Jacobsen. Khapaeva discusses the “human” and “anti-human” paradigms in apocalyptic media and the commodification of anti-humanism mentioning examples such as The Incredibles, Avengers, Harry Potter, Wall E, Pacific Rim, and many others.