scholarly journals Literary visions of post-apocalyptic worlds in the works of Mary Shelley, Margaret Atwood and Maggie Gee

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (46) ◽  
pp. 405-425
Author(s):  
Gönül Bakay
Keyword(s):  
Human Subject ◽  
Margaret Atwood ◽  
Mary Shelley ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Severe Attack ◽  
Ecological Awareness ◽  
Seminal Article ◽  
Cautionary Tales ◽  
The Last Man ◽  
Destructive Potential

Once hailed as the pinnacle of evolutionary progress, the human subject has more recently been under severe attack due to the destructive potential that has been unleashed by humans, especially in the last two hundred years. As a result, contemporary literature and art is replete with images of a utopia without humans. Many writers see humans, or rather human destructiveness, as the real plague on the planet and offer visions of utopia placed in the post-apocalyptic post-human era. Drawing on Patricia Vieira’s seminal article titled “Utopia and Dystopia in the Age of the Anthropocene”, I will first discuss how Mary Shelley portrayed ecological awareness in her The Last Man. I will then move on to examine how increasing ecological destruction leads to (post)-apocalyptic visions in the works of Margaret Atwood and Maggie Gee. My aim in juxtaposing two contemporary writers with Mary Shelley is to show that despite their different socio-historical contexts, these women writers have produced works that can not only be read as visionary and cautionary tales but that also promote heightened ecological awareness as an antidote to destructive and – ultimately – self-destructive tendencies of humankind.

scholarly journals Predicting the Patriarchal Politics of Pandemics From Mary Shelley to COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eileen Hunt Botting
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Margaret Atwood ◽  
Mary Shelley ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
Octavia Butler ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
The Last Man

I examine the predictive powers of the political science fictions of Mary Shelley, Octavia Butler, and Margaret Atwood for understanding the patriarchal—or men-dominant—dynamics of the politics of pandemics in the twenty-first century. Like her literary followers in post-apocalyptic plague literature, Butler and Atwood, Shelley foresaw that the twenty-first century would be the age of lethal pandemics. Their post-apocalyptic fictions also projected the ways that patriarchal and authoritarian forms of populism could shape the cultural circumstances that can turn a local outbreak of a new and deadly contagious disease, like COVID-19, into a politically chaotic and economically devastating global plague. Modern feminist political science fiction born of Shelley's great pandemic novel The Last Man (1826) is seemingly clairvoyant not because of any supernatural powers of the authors but rather because of their studied attention to the wisdom of plague literature, the lessons of epidemic history, and the political dynamics of patriarchy and populism.

Embodied Antiquity

2020 ◽  
pp. 191-226
Author(s):  
James Uden
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Mary Shelley ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Emotional Connection ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The Past ◽  
Verse Drama ◽  
The Last Man

The final chapter of the book turns to the nexus between classical antiquity, Romanticism, and the Gothic, as it is reflected in the writings of Mary Shelley. “Reanimation” has been frequently identified as a consistent trope in Shelley’s work. This chapter argues, by contrast, that Shelley repeatedly creates fantastic scenarios in which ancient and modern times meet, and modernity is revealed to be weak or insufficient when faced with the strength and vitality of the ancient world. The chapter turns first to Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), in which Victor Frankenstein’s efforts at creation are implicitly compared to the ancient model announced in the subtitle, and judged a grotesque failure. Then, the chapter turns to a series of texts written while Shelley was living in Italy—the short story “Valerius, the Reanimated Roman,” her novella Mathilda, and her verse drama Proserpine—each of which dramatizes the unsatisfying and disappointed search for emotional connection with characters from antiquity. Finally, the chapter turns to Shelley’s end-of-days novel The Last Man (1826). This novel’s many allusions to Rome and antiquity reinforce the gulf that separates an idealized antiquity from a doomed, weakening present. Shelley’s writings vividly demonstrate the seductive pleasures of engaging with ideas from antiquity, but ultimately she expresses little hope that we can truly connect with the frightening giants of the past.

scholarly journals Breaking Aesthetics and Universaling Plague in Mary Shelley’s The Last Man

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatriz González Moreno
Keyword(s):  
Mary Shelley ◽  
The Self ◽  
The World ◽  
Poetic Inspiration ◽  
Last Man ◽  
Anima Mundi ◽  
The Last Man

Para los poetas románticos la imaginación era un puente necesario para salvar las distancias entre el mundo y el yo, y haciendo uso de ella estetizaron el mundo según las categorías estéticas de belleza y sublimidad. Es más, la Weltanschauung romántica permitió el resurgir del motivo del anima mundi, donde la naturaleza era fuente de inspiración, un ser vivo y madre nutricia. A lo largo de este artículo, me propongo explorar las cuestiones arriba mencionadas en la obra de Mary Shelley, The Last Man para mostrar hasta qué punto la autora consigue subvertir las pretensiones románticas y presentar una visión distópica del pensamiento romántico.Palabras clave: Romanticismo, estética, belleza, sublimidad, naturaleza, plagaABSTRACTFor Romantic poets imagination was understood as mainly a bridge to save distances between the world and the self; by means of imagination poets created an aestheticised world: nature was perceived either under the lineaments of beauty or of sublimity. Besides, the Romantic Weltanschauung favoured the resurgence of the anima mundi theme, which came to be very significant: firstly, because the spirit of nature favours poetic inspiration/ creation (wind and harp themes); and secondly, because nature is perceived as both an animated being and a nurturing-nursuring mother. Thus, my aim throughout this essay is to explore the concepts and themes stated above in Mary ShelleyKs The Last Man (1826) and to show how the author succeeds in subverting Romantic pretensions so that her work is to be understood as a dystopian vision of Romantic theory.Key words: Romanticism, aesthetics, beauty, sublimity, nature, plague

scholarly journals "Este animal aflito”: leitura de três últimos homens em tempos apocalípticos pelas mãos de Mary Shelley, Pepetela e Miguel Real

2020 ◽  
pp. 5-15
Author(s):  
Sofia Araújo
Keyword(s):  
Mary Shelley ◽  
Last Man ◽  
The Last Man

Em qualquer contexto literário distópico –obra total ou moldura diegética de uma contra-proposta utópica– a figura do último homem, do indivíduo só, do único sobrevivente, assume-se comummente como o guardião do que foi e toma para si um papel civilizacional. A partir da análise de três romances profundamente distintos -The Last Man, de Mary Shelley (1826), O Quase Fim do Mundo, de Pepetela (2013) e O Último Europeu 2284, de Miguel Real (2015)- foi possível delinear os pontos cardiais destas figuras literárias, mas também filosóficas, e confirmar que a figura querida dos românticos mantém a plasticidade e o potencial sugestivo de antanho.

scholarly journals Science Fiction and Utopia in the Anthropocene

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerry Canavan
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Margaret Atwood ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Deep Time ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Future ◽  
Literature And Film

Abstract This article takes up science-fictional visions of the future against the “deep time” of the Anthropocene in order to explore the possibilities for utopia that remain in an era that only seems capable of producing necrofuturological dread. The piece surveys a wide range of contemporary literature and film; the key prose authors discussed are Octavia E. Butler, Margaret Atwood, Ernest Callenbach, and Kim Stanley Robinson.

scholarly journals The Last Man and ‘The First Woman’: Unmanly Images of Unhuman Nature in Mary Shelley’s Ecocriticism

Perichoresis ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-15
Author(s):  
Éva Antal
Keyword(s):  
Mary Shelley ◽  
The Other ◽  
Natural Order ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
The Sublime ◽  
The World ◽  
Last Man ◽  
The One ◽  
The Last Man

AbstractMary Shelley in her writings relies on the romanticised notions of nature: in addition to its beauties, the sublime quality is highlighted in its overwhelming greatness. In her ecological fiction, The Last Man (1826), the dystopian view of man results in the presentation of the declining civilization and the catastrophic destruction of infested mankind. In the novel, all of the characters are associated with forces of culture and history. On the one hand, Mary Shelley, focussing on different human bonds, warns against the sickening discord and dissonance, the lack of harmony in the world, while, on the other hand, she calls for the respect of nature and natural order. The prophetic caring female characters ‘foresee’ the events but cannot help the beloved men to control their building and destroying powers. Mary Shelley expresses her unmanly view of nature and the author’s utopian hope seems to lie in ‘unhuman’ nature. While the epidemic, having been unleashed by the pests of patriarchal society and being accelerated by global warming, sweeps away humanity, Mother Nature flourishes and gains back her original ‘dwelling place’.

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