AFTER the END: POST-APOCALYPTIC FICTION in the LONG 20Th CENTURY

AFTER THE END: POST-APOCALYPTIC FICTION IN THE LONG 20th CENTURY RUQQIYA LYDIA GREENIDGE A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF PhD ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY 2018 Mandatory Layout of Declaration/Statements Word Count of thesis: 79,070 DECLARATION This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Candidate name Ruqqiya Lydia Greenidge Signature: Date 30/4/18 STATEMENT 1 This thesis is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. Where *correction services have been used, the extent and nature of the correction is clearly marked in a footnote(s). Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references. A bibliography is appended. Signature: Date 30/4/18 [*this refers to the extent to which the text has been corrected by others] STATEMENT 2 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter- library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signature: Date 30/4/18 NB: Candidates on whose behalf a bar on access (hard copy) has been approved by the University should use the following version of Statement 2: I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter- library loans after expiry of a bar on access approved by Aberystwyth University. Signature: Date 30/4/18 2 Graduation Choice This summary sheet should be completed after you have read the guidance notes. The completed sheet should be submitted by you to your Department/School/Institute at the time of submission of your work and the supporting documentation. Candidate’s Surname/Family Greenidge Name Candidate’s Forenames (in full) Ruqqiya Lydia Candidate for the Degree of PhD (PhD, MPhil, LLM (Res) etc.) Academic year the work 2018 submitted for examination Summary: This thesis seeks to discuss and analyse the taxonomy of post-apocalyptic fiction in the 20th and 21st century, while at the same time detail why the subgenre is distinctive and attractive for writers. The thesis delves into both the cultural and historical backgrounds of both the novels discussed and the authors, to give each taxonomic category a factual base and context. The overall end result of this thesis is an evolutionary survey of the post-apocalyptic subgenre of both form and content. Acknowledgements There have been a whole host of people who have supported me and helped me throughout this long and incredible journey. I want to thank my supervisor, Dr. Natasha Alden, for her patience, guidance, and calm reassurance that I would get there eventually. I want to thank all of my friends and family who stuck by me throughout this seemingly ceaseless process. The fact that I even still have friends seems like nothing short of a miracle. I love you all. I want to thank my husband, Richard Henson, who talked me down many a ledge and kept me laughing, even when laughing was borderline impossible. Without him, I’m not sure where I would be, but I can’t guarantee it would be pleasant. Love you big big. Finally, major gratitude and love must go to my parents. From the time I learned how to write until now, they have encouraged me, helped me, supported me, and cheered me on. Nothing I have accomplished in my life could have happened without them and I’m more grateful to them than I can ever say. This degree is just as much for them as it is for me. This thesis is dedicated to you. 2 Table of Contents Introduction 2 Chapter One: Nuclear Destruction and Community 31 Chapter Two: Pandemic and The Last Man 79 Chapter Three: War and Retrospective Narration 136 Chapter Four: Ecological Collapse and Memory 191 Conclusion 248 Bibliography 256 1 Introduction In his essay “No place like home”, the novelist Keith Brooke suggests that writing science fiction fulfils a purpose for the writer beyond simply telling a story: […] S[cience] F[iction] offers a strategy for steering readers towards fresh interpretations and reassessments of their own reality; for me, one of the main reasons for writing S[cience] F[iction] is the way it allows the author to bypass readers’ preconceptions by writing about fundamental issues from different perspectives – when we write about aliens we are really just writing about what it is to be human, when we write about space wars we are really exploring what it is in our nature that leads us to war, and so on. The key element here is the critical relationship: we do not merely see things anew, but we question and examine them anew.1 Brooke is arguing that Science Fiction’s ability to defamiliarise allows it to reassess our “own reality”, as he puts it. This theory of authorial use of science fiction coincides with the development of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction. This thesis will demonstrate that post-apocalyptic fiction can be broken into different subject types and why it is important to develop a taxonomy of post- apocalyptic fiction. Post-apocalyptic fiction is distinctive in that it lends itself to taxonomical categorisation of this nature because of how encompassing and varied the subgenre is. Each category experienced its own unique evolution and has its own set of qualities or quirks to bring to the subgenre as well as insight into an author’s particular thoughts or feelings on the end of the world and beyond, as well as their 1 Keith Brooke, ‘No Place Like Home: Topian Science Fiction’, in Strange Divisions and Alien Territories: The Sub-Genres of Science Fiction, ed. by Keith Brooke (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), pp. 126 -143 (p. 133). 2 realities as they wrote their novels. For example, David Moody’s use of the 7/7 bombing in London as a dark inspiration for his novel, Dog Blood (2010)2 and its subsequent sequels3. Readers are reminded of how important it is to keep our world whole by seeing what would happen if it falls apart. The goal of this thesis is to develop a taxonomy of post-apocalyptic fiction in order to show what is distinctive about the subgenre. In each chapter, I will explore three novels that exemplify each category and their use of the particular literary tropes they demonstrate. In order to further understand the depth of the use of literary tropes and devices within the post- apocalyptic subgenre, I have broken down post-apocalyptic fiction into four main types: Nuclear Holocaust, Pandemic, War, and Environmental Collapse. I chose these types because they are the bases around which post-apocalyptic fiction organises itself. In his essay on the future of post-apocalyptic fiction, Jason Heller supposed that being reminded of what we should fight for is why post-apocalyptic stories appeal to readers in the first place: Post-apocalyptic books are thriving for a simple reason: The world feels more precariously perched on the lip of the abyss than ever, and facing those fears through fiction helps us deal with it. These stories are cathartic as well as cautionary. But they also reaffirm why we struggle to keep our world together in the first place. By imagining what it's like to lose everything, we can value what we have.4 2 David Moody, Dog Blood (New York: Thomas Dunne, 2010). 3 David Moody, email to the author, 2 December 2013. 4 Jason Heller, ‘Does Post-Apocalyptic Literature Have A (Non-Dystopian) Future?’ in NPR, <http://www.npr.org/2015/05/02/402852849/does-post-apocalyptic- literature-have-a-non-dystopian-future> [accessed 12 September 2015]. 3 Because modern humanity has not dealt with a large, all encompassing apocalypse as detailed by post-apocalyptic novels, readers are bound by the imagination. Nevertheless, imagining the end and the aftermath could be a terrifying enough to spur a change. Before delving into my taxonomy of post-apocalyptic fiction, however, first I will explore the definitions and history within the subgenre. Post-apocalyptic stories are as old as the idea of apocalypse itself; as long as humans have feared that the world could be destroyed, they have hoped that something could be rebuilt from the wreckage. Because of this, post-apocalyptic stories tend to be anthrocentric. This begs a series of questions: what sets humans apart from other creatures? Why are humans the dominant species on the planet? What would happen if humans had to interact with creatures of equal or greater intelligence? Why should the human race survive, in any capacity, in the post- apocalypse? These novels question what it means to be human and question what it is about humanity that is worth saving. The earliest apocalyptic writing can be found in religious texts with the idea that the world was created by a higher power and could, or would, be destroyed by that same higher power, for various reasons. One very well-known example is that of Noah and his ark from the Judeo-Christian Bible, although The Bible discusses the apocalypse often. In their analysis of the apocalypse for America Magazine, Nantais and Simone point out the unique nature of the way in which the apocalypse is addressed in the Book of Revelation: 4 Although it was revered by many in the early church as a work of the Apostle John, the Book of Revelation differs in many ways from the other texts of the Christian Scriptures. Certainly, the text’s images have some parallels in pre- Christian apocalyptic literature, but their use in Revelation is often novel.5 The Book of Revelation in The Bible6 describes the apocalypse in terms that many people associate with the apocalypse today, including the appearance of the four horsemen and the separation of those going to heaven from those forced to remain on Earth to watch it burn.

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