Postapocalyptic Fiction and the Social Contract

We'll Not Go Home Again

Claire P. Curtis

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Hardback

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English

Lexington Books
17 July 2010

Literature: history & criticism; Literary studies: general; Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers; Social forecasting, future studies; Political science & theory; Sci-Fi Reference

Postapocalyptic Fiction and the Social Contract: 'We'll Not Go Home Again' provides a framework for our fascination with the apocalyptic events. The popular appeal of the end of the world genre is clear in movies, novels, and television shows. Even our political debates over global warming, nuclear threats, and pandemic disease reflect a concern about the possibility of such events. This popular fascination is really a fascination with survival: how can we come out alive? And what would we do next? The end of the world is not about species death, but about beginning again. This book uses postapocalyptic fiction as a terrain for thinking about the state of nature: the hypothetical fiction that is the driving force behind the social contract. The first half of the book examines novels that tell the story of the move from the state of nature to civil society through a Hobbesian, a Lockean, or a Rousseauian lens, including Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank, Malevil by Robert Merle, and Into the Forest by Jean Hegland. The latter half of the book examines Octavia Butler's postapocalyptic Parable series in which a new kind of social contract emerges, one built on the fact of human dependence and vulnerability.

By: Claire P. Curtis
Imprint: Lexington Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 242mm, Width: 162mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 465g
ISBN: 9780739142035
ISBN 10: 0739142038
Pages: 210
Publication Date: 17 July 2010
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Claire P. Curtis, Ph.D., is associate professor at the College of Charleston.

Reviews for Postapocalyptic Fiction and the Social Contract: We'll Not Go Home Again

In the first sustained study of its kind, Claire Curtis juxtaposes postapocalyptic literature with major thinkers and themes of modern political philosophy to draw important insights into political possibilities in an age of recurrent crises. She teases out how most postapocalyptic literature follows the scripts of the social contract as laid down by Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Rawls. That perspective allows us to see anew the goals and difficulties of the social contract thinkers; Claire Curtis then looks to Octavia Butler's Parables to find novel ways of re-conceptualizing consent and community.--Peter G. Stillman