Erin's Annotated Bibliography

Working Thesis: 

According to Edmund Burke, the idea of sublime or awe is strictly related to the sense of terror and can be seen in all types of art, and especially in literature. Throughout post-apocalyptic literature, this sense of terror is largely seen and certain elements that create this terror also inspire the sense of awe within the texts. Looking at Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon and Cormac McCarthy's The Road, these elements are contrasted and bring about ultimately the sublime that is seen in the two books. These elements include the contrast between the confusion of antagonist and protagonist, the progress of characterization seen throughout the book, the characterization of the place, and the social commentary that reveals the largely seen anxiety of nuclear attacks and of a nuclear apocalypse. 

 Annotated Bibliography:

“After the End: A Look at Post-Apocalyptic Books and Films.” Extension Blog. President and Fellows of Harvard College, 8 Aug. 2013. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.

In this blog from Harvard University, Sue Schopf talks about her class that she taught about post-apocalyptic literature, not only an interview but a short video in which she talks briefly about her class. She makes several great points not only about post-apocalyptic literature in general but also about why it is so relevant today.

Beckley, Bill, ed. Sticky Sublime. Canada: Allworth Press, 2001. Print.

In this book, the idea of sublime is explored and how that relates to the Gothic. This will work into the argument for Edgar Allan Poe and Mary Shelley and how they prepare the way for the post-apocalyptic book relating to Burke’s argument.

Broderick, Mick. “Surviving Armageddon: Beyond the Imagination of Disaster.” Science Fiction Studies 20.3 (1993): 362-382. JSTOR. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.  

Broderick argues that the idea of Armageddon is not new and how that is a social ideal through which would bring about a new sort of Eden after the current world is destroyed. This relates to my ideas about the end of the world portrayed in post-apocalyptic literature.

Burke, Edmund. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas. United States of America: Start Publishing LLC, 2012. Kindle file.

Using this theoretical text to look at the ideas of sublime/awe and terror. It is Edmund Burke that presents this idea, which started my thought process of how awe and terror could be related. I will use this as a background to my argument and paper and give it strength and context.

Cordle, Daniel. “Cultures of Terror: Nuclear Criticism During and Since the Cold War.” Literature Compass 3.6 (2006): 1186-1199. Wiley Online Library. Web. 9 Mar. 2014.

This article discusses the threat of a nuclear apocalypse that has been seen in society prevalently ever since the Cold War and which appears in both of the two books that I will examine.

Cowley, Christopher. Ashes to Ashes: Trauma, History, and the Ethics of Allegorical Memory in Post 9/11 Literature. MA Thesis. University of Florida, 2008. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.

Cowley writes about how the event of 9/11 has influenced culture today, specifically in The Road. I plan on using events such as World War II and 9/11 to look at how it has influenced post-apocalyptic literature today and how that genre reflects society’s anxieties because of those events. 

Des Pres, Terrence. “Terror and the Sublime.” Human Rights Quarterly 5.2 (1983): 135-146. JSTOR. Web. 9, Mar. 2014.

In this article, the relation between terror and the sublime are explored according to Burke’s treatise. This relates specifically to my argument about the two being connected and how they can be explored within a specific genre.

Edwards, Tim. “The End of the Road: Pastoralism and the Post-Apocalyptic Waste Land of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. The Cormac McCarthy Journal. 6 (2008): 55-63. Literature Online. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.

This article discusses the idea of landscape in The Road, which relates to my argument about the landscape or place becoming significant in the genre of post-apocalyptic literature.

Frank, Pat. Alas, Babylon. Philadelphia and New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1959. Print.

This book is one of the two primary texts that will be used to explore post-apocalyptic literature and how it may explore the themes of awe and terror. I will use this text to contrast with The Road and how the two of them may or may not portray the chosen elements of post-apocalyptic literature.

Gyngell, Adam. “Writing the Unthinkable: Narrative, the Bomb and Nuclear Holocaust.” Opticon 1826 6 (2009): 1-11. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.

This article discusses the idea of writing about nuclear bombing and the idea of apocalypse that can follow. I will use this to further my argument about how two authors do specifically that.

Kunsa, Ashley. “’Maps of the World in Its Becoming’: Post-Apocalyptic Naming in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.” Journal of Modern Literature 33.1 (2009): 57-74. Project Muse. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.

Kunsa talks about The Road specifically and also talks about the characters and their growth throughout the novel, including the difficulty in identifying good and evil in the text. This relates specifically to my identification and discussion of certain elements in post-apocalyptic literature.

McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. New York: Random House, 2006. Print.

Besides Alas, Babylon I will use this text as one of my primary texts exploring post-apocalyptic literature and how it explores awe and terror within the context of the genre. This text is different from other post-apocalyptic literature and it generates terror and awe in a different way, which will help contrast with Alas, Babylon.

Mishra, Vijay. The Gothic Sublime. Albany: University of New York Press, 1994. Print.  

Mishra discusses Burke’s argument about terror and sublime in this book and how that argument can work in literature. I plan on using it as a background text to work through Burke’s argument that will set up my argument about post-apocalyptic literature.

Ray, Gene. Terror and the Sublime in Art and Critical Theory. New York: Gene Ray, 2005. Print.

Gene Ray writes about the connection between terror and the sublime, specifically referring to war and nuclear bombing. I will relate this to the text primary texts I will examine and how they portray this terror and awe.

Schopf, Sue. “The Post-Apocalyptic Novel and Film, Lecture 1.” Harvard Course – Engl E-214/W. President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2013-2014. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.

Sue Schopf is a professor at Harvard University and gave a class titled “The Post-Apocalyptic Novel and Film.” The first lecture she gave was recorded and placed online in which she gives a brief history and context for the post-apocalyptic novel and an exploration into the popular craze about the same genre in literature and film. She explores several aspects that give me further ideas for ways that I could strengthen my argument and add history and proof.

Sterrenburg, Lee. “The Last Man: Anatomy of Failed Revolutions.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction 33.3 (1978): 324-347. JSTOR. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.  

Sterrenburg in this article explores Mary Shelley’s post-apocalyptic novel The Last Man and gives it a brief history and description, specifically how it relates to revolutions. This article gives a brief history of a historical post-apocalyptic novel, allowing me to cover the history of post-apocalyptic literature and how that influences the terror and awe in which we see in The Road and Alas, Babylon.

Walliss, John, and James Aston. “Doomsday America: The Pessimistic Turn of Post-9/11 Apocalyptic Cinema.” The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 23.1 (2011): 53-64. EBSCOhost Humanities Source. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.

This article explores how the event of 9/11 influenced and currently influences apocalyptic cinema which relates to post-apocalyptic literature in the sense that it explores the same kinds of ideas and has a lot of the same elements. It also explores the psychological aspect of the American culture and how that influences the ideas of the end of the world and what will happen afterwards.

Wolf-Meyer, Matthew. “Apocalypse, Ideology, America: Science Fiction and the Myth of the Post-Apocalyptic Everyday.” Rhizomes 8 (2004): n. pag. ProQuest. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.

Wolf-Meyer writes about why society is interested (or obsessed) in post-apocalyptic literature and how that affects the literature. I plan on using this when I write about the social and moral commentary that we can see in post-apocalyptic literature.

Wilczynski, Marek. The Phantom and the Abyss: The Gothic Fiction in America and Aesthetics of the Sublime 1798-1856. “The Phantom and the Abyss.” Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1999. Print.

Wilczynski in this book applies the idea of sublime specifically to the literature of Edgar Allan Poe. Therefore this book explores how Gothic literature can portray the sublime (or awe) or may not. I will apply this to my argument that includes Poe’s literature and also how to tell if the text portrays awe or not in terms of sublime.

What's Next: 

I plan on continuing my research, including an interview with Harvard professor Sue Schopf (hopefully). As I continue my research and the writing of my paper, I hope to narrow down my thesis and strengthen it considerably.