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Conceptions of Humanity in Three Works of Post-Apocalyptic Fiction Bachelor’S Diploma Thesis

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Conceptions of Humanity in Three Works of Post-Apocalyptic Fiction Bachelor’S Diploma Thesis Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Tereza Šplíchalová Conceptions of Humanity in Three Works of Post-Apocalyptic Fiction Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph. D. 2016 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature Acknowledgement I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph.D., for his patience, excellent guidance and words of encouragement. Many thanks go to all who had to cope with me and my apocalyptic frame of mind during the entire process of writing. Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................... - 5 - 1 The Theory behind the End of the World ............................................................... - 9 - 2 The Last Man ......................................................................................................... - 14 - 2.1 Post-Apocalypse as Personal Testimony ....................................................... - 14 - 2.2 Society Reflected: Anatomy of Failed Ideals ................................................ - 22 - 3 The Scarlet Plague ................................................................................................ - 30 - 3.1 Darwinism, Social Darwinism and Evolutionary Throwback ....................... - 30 - 3.2 Humanity Lost: Culture, Science, Language ................................................. - 39 - 4 The Road ............................................................................................................... - 48 - 4.1 Language of Post-Apocalypse and Religious View ...................................... - 48 - 4.2 Motivations, Love and Hope.......................................................................... - 57 - 4.3 Morality and Ethical Choices......................................................................... - 63 - Conclusions .................................................................................................................. - 72 - Works Cited .................................................................................................................. - 75 - Résumé ......................................................................................................................... - 78 - Resumé ......................................................................................................................... - 79 - Introduction Humanity has been said to be pre-occupied with a sense of crisis. Such feelings are undoubtedly reflected in literature and might as well answer the question what makes post- apocalyptic genre so appealing and popular today. Post-apocalyptic representations often examine how mankind behaves in times of crisis and what, with respect to humanity as a quality, ends and what is preserved. This thesis focuses on different conceptions of humanity in three works of post-apocalyptic fiction, namely The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, The Scarlet Plague by Jack London and The Road by Cormac McCarthy. These three novels, published within a 180 years range, provide a framework within which different conceptions are defined with respect to the oddities of the genre. The main focus is put on the aftermath of apocalypse, i.e. how, in particular areas of concern, humanity changed or developed after having to face the world’s end. The main objective aims to show how humanity is, both in terms of population and quality, treated by three different authors and what can one deduce from it with regard to the author’s historical background or personal convictions. The possibility that any apocalypse can be highly personal is discussed, as well as the option that it responds to the current affairs taking place during the author’s lifetime. Each novel is approached individually as they, besides the issues directly connected to post- apocalypse, differ in themes and motifs connected to the conceptions of humanity. The motif of apocalypse is discussed separately as the end itself, its actual nature and the outcome of it form the core of any post-apocalyptic narrative. In order to provide a comprehensive image, the first chapter is devoted to the theory behind the end of the world and used methodology. It traces the origin of the idea of apocalypse back to the Bible and offers several possibilities of interpretation, as well as a proposed methodology of how to understand apocalypse and whether it really has to look like the end of the world in the biblical sense. Three another interpretations are offered so as - 5 - to illustrate how broadly the genre can be construed. The first chapter compiles relevant passages from the Bible – for this purpose, The New International Version is used. The theoretical part is largely based on James Berger’s study After the End: Representations of Post-Apocalypse which provides a framework and a base from which one can proceed toward his/her own interpretation. Berger offers a distinct point of view on how to look on post-apocalyptic fiction and interpret it within the means of today’s culture. His ideas are implemented throughout the thesis as he provides many thoughts on the genre in general. The second chapter studies The Last Man and is divided into two subchapters according to two main areas of concern and two different modes of interpretation. The first part reads The Last Man as Mary Shelley’s personal testimony and explores to what extent the novel can be read as autobiographical. The second part looks into its political statements and presents The Last Man as a list of failed ideologies - hereby it greatly relies on Lee Sterrenburg’s article “The Last Man: Anatomy of Failed Revolutions”. Sterrenburg gives a brief overview of the political situation in Mary Shelley’s era and explains the concept of revolution with its ideals as well as its dangers. He interprets The Last Man as Mary Shelley’s response to what is happening in her world outside her private life and thus serves as an antithesis to the first part. Both parts implement Anne K. Mellor’s observations compiled in the introduction to The Last Man where she attempts to spot the author’s persona in her writing and illustrate the way Mary Shelley’s personal life is projected in The Last Man, with regard to character construction, described events or proposed ideology. To support Mellor’s claims, Mary Shelley’s personal journals are used, mainly to emphasize the link between herself and the narrator’s situation. To give a full credit to Mary Shelley’s contribution to the genre as known today, the first chapter also deals with the concept of the last man and his position as the narrator of post-apocalypse. The relevancy of his testimony and its significance is explained through John Leslie’s The End of the World: The Science - 6 - and Ethics of Human Extinction, which aims to prove that without such figure, any apocalypse is in general irrelevant. The chapter further proceeds to depict a frequently occurring figure of post-apocalypse, the false prophet. The third chapter examines The Scarlet Plague and is as well divided into two parts. The first part reads the novel as London’s projection of Darwinist thoughts, his greatest inspiration. London presents the devolution of humanity and creates a double narrative to emphasize the distinction between the pre-apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic world. Such division marks any apocalyptic event as a divisive tool, as something that divides the world into before and after and expands the thought of apocalyptic timetable discussed in the first chapter. This part further examines London’s attempts to undermine the idea of social Darwinism and assigns it to his political convictions that are also noticeable in London’s treatment of the concept of social equality. The second part focuses on what precisely constitutes humanity as such and what is, in the world after, inevitably lost. Culture, science and language are three pillars that, according to London, are inseparable from humanity at its evolved stage and thus act as a marker of what does it mean to be human. To understand London’s background, the article “Jack London and Evolution: From Spencer to Huxley” by Lawrence I. Berkove is used. It provides a comprehensive view on London’s journey to accepting Darwinism with its amoral aspects and, besides other London’s works, searches for social interpretation of The Scarlet Plague. Berkove’s ideas complement those presented by Berger as both attempt to explain what happens to society when it is confronted with great changes, such as apocalypses. The last chapter studies post-apocalyptic representations in The Road, altogether with a number of aspects connected to greatly reduced humanity. McCarthy’s minimalistic approach supports the idea of condensed humanity as he illustrates the fate of the human race on two central characters only. This thesis is particularly concerned with two major - 7 - themes, religion and morality, since they both contribute to the eventual interpretation of The Road. This chapter constitutes of three parts; the first one claims that The Road can be read as a highly religious novel featuring the search for New Jerusalem and aims to interpret a number of religious representations that pervade the novel. The second subchapter focuses on the central characters and their personas and defines
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