In a Prescient Mode. (Un)Sustainable Societies in the Post/Apocalyptic Genre

Prophecies about a catastrophe causing the demise of civilization resonate throughout the literature of Judaism and Christianity from 1 BC to the Middle Ages. While marking an end, the downfall is inscribed within a cycle of eternal return, according to which disastrous events will recur again and again infinitely, leading humankind to always redefine its place and purpose in history. The notion of eternal recurrence implies that any collapse coincides with a starting point: the apocalypse heralds palingenesis. The metamorphoses of the apocalypse will be traced throughout the centuries. Anthropogenic events gained narrative momentum in the Victorian Age. Since the inception of the Industrial Revolution the undermining of expectations about technological progress and the degradation of the environment have been denounced in tales of nuclear explosions, collisions of planets, climate change, and pandemics. Although a sense of precariousness and peril is inherent in the cycle of extinction and new foundation evoked by the apocalypse, perception of risk as a defining existential condition permeates present times. Authors of contemporary post-apocalyptic novels speculate on how humanity will adapt to different causes of risk and will cope with specific typologies of disasters.