Development of the post-apocalyptic convention as a reflection of Western culture’s fears

Abstract

When answering a question about the importance of the post-apocalyptic fiction to the Western culture, one can choose various approaches. One of them is the meta-analysis of the connections between trending topics in the convention and a state of social and political affairs in times corresponding to the appearance of such topics. ccording to this approach, cultural phenomena of such magnitude can always be traced back to the social needs for stories that could express prevailing fears or hopes of that specific era. My work takes this approach and tells the story about the development of the post-apocalyptic convention. It starts with the first, 19th-century works, that were still experimenting with the idea of world after a catastrophe, then it moves to the 20th century, when the convention gained popularity, and it finishes with the preliminary analysis of its form in the contemporary world. All of this is compared with the history of Western societies in order to highlight how various changes occurring in the fields of science, politics and economy shaped the needs for a certain types of post-apocalyptic stories.