Postapocalyptic Fiction and the Social Contract: We'll Not Go Home Again

by Claire P. Curtis

Overview

Postapocalyptic Fiction and the Social Contract: 'We'll Not Go Home Again' provides a framework for our fascination with the apocalyptic events. The popular appeal of the end of the world genre is clear in movies, novels, and television shows. Even our political debates over global warming, nuclear threats, and pandemic disease reflect a concern about the possibility of such events. This popular fascination is really a fascination with survival: how can we come out alive? And what would we do next? The end of the world is not about species death, but about beginning again. This book uses postapocalyptic fiction as a terrain for thinking about the state of nature: the hypothetical fiction that is the driving force behind the social contract. The first half of the book examines novels that tell the story of the move from the state of nature to civil society through a Hobbesian, a Lockean, or a Rousseauian lens, including Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank, Malevil by Robert Merle, and Into the Forest by Jean Hegland. The latter half of the book examines Octavia Butler's postapocalyptic Parable series in which a new kind of social contract emerges, one built on the fact of human dependence and vulnerability.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739142059
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	07/17/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	210
File size:	411 KB

About the Author

Claire P. Curtis, Ph.D., is associate professor at the College of Charleston.

Table of Contents

1 Contents
2 Acknowledgments
3 Introduction
Chapter 4 1 Last One Out, Please Turn Out the Lights: On the Beach and The Road
Chapter 5 2 "…solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short": Hobbes and Lucifer's Hammer, the classic postapocalyptic text
Chapter 6 3 "Industrious and Rational": John Locke and Alas, Babylon: the Rational Life Postapocalypse
Chapter 7 4 "Man is born free; and everywhere is in chains": Rousseau and Malevil: the Responsibilities of Civil Life
Chapter 8 5 "Maybe Effort Counted": John Rawls and Thought Experiments
Chapter 9 6 "To take root among the stars": Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower and Rethinking the Social Contract
Chapter 10 7 "We can choose": Octavia Butler's Parable of the Talents and the Meaning of Security
11 Epilogue
12 Bibliography

What People are Saying About This

Laurence Davis

This thoughtful and engaging study effectively utilizes the resources of political theory and literary criticism to illuminate both post-apocalyptic fiction and social contract theory. In the current climate of state-sponsored fear and terror that suffocates hope and silences expressions of human solidarity, it also offers refreshing insights into the elusive meanings of human security and vulnerability. In short, a fine scholarly work.

Peter G. Stillman

In the first sustained study of its kind, Claire Curtis juxtaposes postapocalyptic literature with major thinkers and themes of modern political philosophy to draw important insights into political possibilities in an age of recurrent crises. She teases out how most postapocalyptic literature follows the scripts of the social contract as laid down by Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Rawls. That perspective allows us to see anew the goals and difficulties of the social contract thinkers; Claire Curtis then looks to Octavia Butler's Parables to find novel ways of re-conceptualizing consent and community.

Editorial Reviews

Putting aside the more common question of why people are fascinated with the story of the ultimate violence and punishment, Curtis (political science, College of Charleston) focuses on the question of survival and the viability of working community in the aftermath of worldwide destruction. Anchoring her excellent, readable study with a question-"Is there an ethics of the postapocalypse?"-the author takes select apocalyptic novels and shows how they imaginatively play out the social contract as envisioned by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and others. She systematically explains each philosopher's vision of the social contract and then provides a detailed reading of an apocalyptic novel that exemplifies that vision. Curtis is not as interested in what apocalyptic novels suggest about society as she is in how they can act as a tool to help readers think through the "basic question of political philosophy: how can a group of people ... live together peacefully." The first treatment of how the ethics of survival and community rebuilding are manifested in apocalyptic fiction, this much-needed book offers a useful perspective on this growing genre. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.” —Choice Reviews

“Claire P. Curtis’s Postapocalyptic Fiction and the Social Contract is a diverse interdisciplinary study combining the theories of political science with literary analysis to produce some interesting and surprising results. . . .[The book is] clear of jargon considering that she reads these works through theoretical lens, and she hits her stride when discussing the textual elements that relate to the theoretical underpinnings of the work. Literary scholars, especially those who study or teach apocalyptic and postapocalyptic fiction, as well as political scientists interested in social contract theory and society’s responses to monumental challenges to the status quo, should find this volume useful and engaging. It certainly introduces some curious thought experiments. There is an extensive use of primary texts throughout, both of political philosophers as well as the novels being examined. . . .Curtis’s volume . . . adds much to the scholarly discussion of literature of the fantastic. It provides a clear interdisciplinary analysis of key postapocalyptic works and should be on the shelf of anyone who studies or teaches the works addressed.” —Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts

“This thoughtful and engaging study effectively utilizes the resources of political theory and literary criticism to illuminate both post-apocalyptic fiction and social contract theory. In the current climate of state-sponsored fear and terror that suffocates hope and silences expressions of human solidarity, it also offers refreshing insights into the elusive meanings of human security and vulnerability. In short, a fine scholarly work.” —Laurence Davis, National University of Ireland Maynooth and co-editor of Anarchism and Utopianism

“In the first sustained study of its kind, Claire Curtis juxtaposes postapocalyptic literature with major thinkers and themes of modern political philosophy to draw important insights into political possibilities in an age of recurrent crises. She teases out how most postapocalyptic literature follows the scripts of the social contract as laid down by Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Rawls. That perspective allows us to see anew the goals and difficulties of the social contract thinkers; Claire Curtis then looks to Octavia Butler's Parables to find novel ways of re-conceptualizing consent and community.” —Peter G. Stillman, Vassar College

From the Publisher

This thoughtful and engaging study effectively utilizes the resources of political theory and literary criticism to illuminate both post-apocalyptic fiction and social contract theory. In the current climate of state-sponsored fear and terror that suffocates hope and silences expressions of human solidarity, it also offers refreshing insights into the elusive meanings of human security and vulnerability. In short, a fine scholarly work.

Laurence Davis

In the first sustained study of its kind, Claire Curtis juxtaposes postapocalyptic literature with major thinkers and themes of modern political philosophy to draw important insights into political possibilities in an age of recurrent crises. She teases out how most postapocalyptic literature follows the scripts of the social contract as laid down by Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Rawls. That perspective allows us to see anew the goals and difficulties of the social contract thinkers; Claire Curtis then looks to Octavia Butler's Parables to find novel ways of re-conceptualizing consent and community.

Peter G. Stillman

Putting aside the more common question of why people are fascinated with the story of the ultimate violence and punishment, Curtis (political science, College of Charleston) focuses on the question of survival and the viability of working community in the aftermath of worldwide destruction. Anchoring her excellent, readable study with a question—'Is there an ethics of the postapocalypse?'—the author takes select apocalyptic novels and shows how they imaginatively play out the social contract as envisioned by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and others. She systematically explains each philosopher's vision of the social contract and then provides a detailed reading of an apocalyptic novel that exemplifies that vision. Curtis is not as interested in what apocalyptic novels suggest about society as she is in how they can act as a tool to help readers think through the 'basic question of political philosophy: how can a group of people ... live together peacefully.' The first treatment of how the ethics of survival and community rebuilding are manifested in apocalyptic fiction, this much-needed book offers a useful perspective on this growing genre. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

Choice Reviews

Claire P. Curtis’s Postapocalyptic Fiction and the Social Contract is a diverse interdisciplinary study combining the theories of political science with literary analysis to produce some interesting and surprising results.. . .[The book is] clear of jargon considering that she reads these works through theoretical lens, and she hits her stride when discussing the textual elements that relate to the theoretical underpinnings of the work. Literary scholars, especially those who study or teach apocalyptic and postapocalyptic fiction, as well as political scientists interested in social contract theory and society’s responses to monumental challenges to the status quo, should find this volume useful and engaging. It certainly introduces some curious thought experiments. There is an extensive use of primary texts throughout, both of political philosophers as well as the novels being examined.. . .Curtis’s volume. .. adds much to the scholarly discussion of literature of the fantastic. It provides a clear interdisciplinary analysis of key postapocalyptic works and should be on the shelf of anyone who studies or teaches the works addressed.

Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts

Putting aside the more common question of why people are fascinated with the story of the ultimate violence and punishment, Curtis (political science, College of Charleston) focuses on the question of survival and the viability of working community in the aftermath of worldwide destruction. Anchoring her excellent, readable study with a question—'Is there an ethics of the postapocalypse?'—the author takes select apocalyptic novels and shows how they imaginatively play out the social contract as envisioned by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and others. She systematically explains each philosopher's vision of the social contract and then provides a detailed reading of an apocalyptic novel that exemplifies that vision. Curtis is not as interested in what apocalyptic novels suggest about society as she is in how they can act as a tool to help readers think through the 'basic question of political philosophy: how can a group of people ... live together peacefully.' The first treatment of how the ethics of survival and community rebuilding are manifested in apocalyptic fiction, this much-needed book offers a useful perspective on this growing genre. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

Choice

Putting aside the more common question of why people are fascinated with the story of the ultimate violence and punishment, Curtis (political science, College of Charleston) focuses on the question of survival and the viability of working community in the aftermath of worldwide destruction. Anchoring her excellent, readable study with a question—'Is there an ethics of the postapocalypse?'—the author takes select apocalyptic novels and shows how they imaginatively play out the social contract as envisioned by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and others. She systematically explains each philosopher's vision of the social contract and then provides a detailed reading of an apocalyptic novel that exemplifies that vision. Curtis is not as interested in what apocalyptic novels suggest about society as she is in how they can act as a tool to help readers think through the 'basic question of political philosophy: how can a group of people ... live together peacefully.' The first treatment of how the ethics of survival and community rebuilding are manifested in apocalyptic fiction, this much-needed book offers a useful perspective on this growing genre. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

CHOICE