Apocalyptic Narcissism and the Difficulty of Mourning

Florian Mussgnug

Abstract


In this article I examine how death and loss feature in recent apocalypse fiction and suggest that, in a genre mostly concerned with finitude, there appears to be paradoxically little room for expressions of mourning. I assess contemporary attitudes towards mortality through the writings of Philippe Ariès, Zygmunt Bauman, Simon Critchley and others, and propose a psychoanalytic reading of solitary survivor narrative, inspired by the work of Martin Jay. In the final part of the article, I turn to Sigmund Freud and René Girard to explore the relation between apocalyptic teleology, melancholy, and the expectation of global catastrophe.

Keywords


Death; Mourning; Apocalypse; Sigmund Freud; René Girard

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13125/2039-6597/2214

NBN: http://nbn.depositolegale.it/urn%3Anbn%3Ait%3Aunica-16928

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