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The Post-Apocalyptic Turn University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations December 2014 The oP st-Apocalyptic Turn: a Study of Contemporary Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Narrative Hyong-jun Moon University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the American Literature Commons, and the Comparative Literature Commons Recommended Citation Moon, Hyong-jun, "The osP t-Apocalyptic Turn: a Study of Contemporary Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Narrative" (2014). Theses and Dissertations. 615. https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/615 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by UWM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UWM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE POST-APOCALYPTIC TURN: A STUDY OF CONTEMPORARY APOCALYPTIC AND POST-APOCALYPTIC NARRATIVE by Hyong-jun Moon A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee December 2014 ABSTRACT THE POST-APOCALYPTIC TURN: A STUDY OF CONTEMPORARY APOCALYPTIC AND POST-APOCALYPTIC NARRATIVE by Hyong-jun Moon The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2014 Under the Supervision of Professor Peter Y. Paik Few periods have witnessed so strong a cultural fixation on apocalyptic calamity as the present. From fictions and comic books to Hollywood films, television shows, and video games, the end of the world is ubiquitous in the form of apocalyptic and post- apocalyptic narratives. Imagining world-changing catastrophes, contemporary apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic narratives force us to face urgent socio-political questions such as danger of globalization, effect of neoliberal capitalist hegemony, ecological disasters, fragility of human civilization, and so on. J. G. Ballard’s final fictions, though they do not directly deal with apocalyptic events but evoke apocalyptic mood, portray the bleak landscape of post-political, post-historical, late capitalist society, where extreme boredom generates mindless violence. Unlike Ballard, Margaret Atwood’s satirical MaddAddam trilogy not only envisions the real possibility of apocalypse under the current neoliberal tendency but also presents a utopian desire in the form of a religious group that actively resists the hegemony of neoliberalism. James Howard Kunstler’s post-apocalyptic fiction focuses on a post-petroleum age, where people lead simple and quotidian lives due to the scarcity of oil. By bringing the sense of scarcity to the fore, Kunstler’s novel also formulates one version of realist worldview, in which the scarcity of resources inevitably calls for the strict rule of law. As an ultimate social ii allegory of anxiety and fear in our times, the global zombie apocalypse envisages the total destruction of civilization, examining the rising necessity of realist attitude that fundamentally negates the traditional belief of progress. Although the scope of contemporary apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic narratives is wide and varied, they share one thing in common: the bold desire to imagine a totally different world by questioning the current order of things. iii © Copyright by Hyong-jun Moon, 2014 All Rights Reserved iv DEDICATION To my parents, Choon-shik Moon and Mi-sun Kang. Also to my wife, Hye-jung Shin. v TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: NARRATIVES THAT LEAP INTO THE FUTURE … AND BACK TO THE PRESENT .................................................................................................1 CHAPTER ONE. VIOLENCE AND NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL STIMULATIONS IN LATE CAPITALISM: READING J. G. BALLARD’S FOUR FINAL NOVELS ................................................................................................................19 Biopolitical Production and the Birth of the Depressed .......................................19 Cocaine Nights: Boredom and Violence in the Post-historical Leisure Society ...25 Super-Cannes: Violence in Neoliberal Utopia ......................................................35 Millennium People: Meaningful Violence in a Meaningless World .....................46 Kingdom Come: Consumerism Turned Fascism ...................................................56 CHAPTER TWO. “NOT REAL CAN TELL US ABOUT REAL”: NEOLIBERALISM, LANGUAGE, AND UTOPIAN DESIRE IN MARGARET ATWOOD’S MADDADDAM TRILOGY ...................................................................................74 Brave New Neoliberal World: The Commodification of Everything ....................80 “What is My Will?”: Violence and Acceptance in Neoliberal Political Rationality ..............................................................................................................90 Dead End of the Language in Neoliberal Society ..................................................98 Hunters and Gardeners: Utopian Desire of God’s Gardeners ..............................108 Virtues and Writings: Toby as an Alternative .....................................................113 Utopia in Dystopia, and Vice Versa ....................................................................119 CHAPTER THREE. “THE LAW IS BACK IN BUSINESS”: COLLAPSE, SCARCITY, AND THE POLITICS OF REALISM IN JAMES HOWARD KUNSTLER’S WORLD MADE BY HAND ..................................................................................125 Collapse Discourses: From Growth to Collapse ..................................................125 “Everything was Local Now”: The World According to Kunstler ......................134 The Resource Problem: From Abundance to Scarcity .........................................140 vi “Reaching for the Lower Branches Before We Get to the Stars”: Collapse and the Realist Attitude ....................................................................................................146 “The Law is Back in Business Here”: Politics of Realism in Times of Scarcity ................................................................................................................157 CHAPTER FOUR. OF ZOMBIES AND MAN: THE EVOLUTION OF THE ZOMBIE AND THE RISE OF THE REALIST SUBJECT ................................................165 Zombie Diaspora: Zombie as an Allegory of Social Discontents........................165 The ‘Working’ Dead: Haitian Origin and White Zombie ....................................173 Ordinary Monster and American Anxieties: George A. Romero and the ‘Living Dead’ Trilogy .......................................................................................................180 The Rise of Global Zombie Apocalypse: Globalized Fear and American Anxiety ................................................................................................................196 Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1): 28 Days Later and the Ideological Representation of the Realist Subject ..................................................................206 Beyond the Pleasure Principle (2): The Walking Dead, the Realist Subject, and the Critique of Nihilist Attitude .................................................................................220 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................235 WORKS CITED ..............................................................................................................244 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In preparing this project I have been able to rely on the knowledge, support, and friendship of a wide array of people. Peter Y. Paik, my advisor and mentor, was an undried source of inspiration throughout writing. Without his guidance, this dissertation would not have been written. My dissertation bears his imprints from beginning to end. As dissertation committee members, Tasha Oren, Peter Sands, Jason Puskar, and Theodore Martin read the manuscript of my dissertation and provided me with insightful ideas and indispensable criticism. I deeply thank them for encouragement and scrutiny that I received from their careful minds. My teachers at University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee, Jane Gallop, Kumkum Sangari, Gilberto Blasini, Andrew Kincaid, and Joe Austin trained me hard and guided me through the various fields of English literature, culture, history, and theory. I would like to thank Chung-ho Chung, Nae-hui Kang, Boo- eung Koh, Sookhee Cho, Jeong Hee Sohn, Young-jin Choe, Jae Uk Choo, Nury Kim, Yeong Don Roh, and Kwang Yeong Shin at Chung-Ang University and Myung-Hwan Kim, Myung-Sook Ryu, Sangjun Jeong, and Doo-Sun Ryu at Seoul National University for teaching, encouraging, and supporting me in my immature years. I wish to thank my friends in Korea and in Milwaukee, without whom my life as a doctoral student would have been more dismal and less pleasant. My special gratitude goes to Ha Seung-woo, Soyoung Kwon, and Dani Shuster, whose beautiful hearts always impress me. I thank Josh, Marisa, Jamie, Shawn, Dave, Lissy, and Quinn at Colectivo (former Alterra) on Prospect for the free coffees and friendly talks. Thanks to them, I could use Colectivo as my own study, where most of my dissertation had been written. I thank Bok Do-hoon for his incessant interest in my project. Park Chan-kyong gave me a chance to present my ideas on apocalypse and catastrophe at the pre-biennale workshop for the Mediacity Seoul 2014 program. I can never forget that winter night with endless talks in Chicago with Minouk Lim. My thanks go to Hyang-woo Park at Minumsa for her careful concern that materialized into
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