After America: Reading the U.S. through Post-apocalyptic Fiction 4219-SD0093-OG

Post-apocalyptic speculations have long served as thought experiments for imagining what remains—and what emerges—after the civilization collapses. Rather than treating the end of the world as a mere spectacle, this course approaches post-apocalyptic storytelling as a way of thinking through the pressures, conflicts, and desires that shape contemporary American society. Across literature, films, and video games, this course examines how postapocalyptic imaginations engage with anxieties surrounding inequalities, technological revolutions, and the climate crisis. The discussions will reflect upon:
• How do different texts shape our understanding of survival and agency?
• Which bodies are protected, which are sacrificed, and why?
• How do depictions of disaster reveal underlying tensions around race, gender, class, disability, nationhood, and humanity?
• Do post-apocalyptic visions function as warnings, fantasies, coping mechanisms, or all at once?
Ultimately, the course approaches post-apocalyptic imagination as a vital critical tool—one that helps contemporary culture articulate its fears, confront its crises, and speculate on the futures that might emerge from a damaged world.

Type of course

elective courses
general courses

Mode

Classroom

Course coordinators

Anna Grzybowska

Learning outcomes

Upon completing this course, students will:

KNOWLEDGE:
• have developed a broadened and critically informed understanding of American post-apocalyptic fiction and its cultural, historical, and political significance
• understand how issues such as race, gender, class, environment, and national identity shape postapocalyptic narratives
• be familiar with major debates and discourses surrounding crisis, resilience, disaster imaginaries, and the function of speculative storytelling in contemporary American culture

SKILLS:
• be able to apply interdisciplinary critical tools to the analysis of post-apocalyptic narratives
• be able to formulate critical arguments on how post-apocalyptic narratives represent and critique American society
• be able to identify, explain, and critically engage key concepts, theoretical frameworks, and narrative strategies central to post-apocalyptic imagination

COMPETENCES:
• be able to collaborate effectively in academic settings, contributing to group discussions and shared projects that synthesize diverse interpretive perspectives
• demonstrate intellectual openness and critical curiosity toward speculative practices in American culture
• be able to recognize, analyze, and articulate the social, political, environmental, and ethical complexities embedded in post-apocalyptic narratives, and to situate these texts within the U.S. culture

Assessment criteria

Grade components:
1) Active class participation – 30%
2) In-semester activity – 30%
3) Research project – 40%

Final grade:
• over 90% – 5 (97-100% - 5!)
• 84-89% – 4,5
• 76-83% – 4
• 68-75% – 3,5
• 60-67% – 3

Bibliography

Selected bibliography:

Berger, James. "After the End: Representations of Post-Apocalypse." University of Minnesota Press, 1999.
Butler, Octavia E. "Parable of the Sower." Earthseed. Four Walls Eight Windows, 1993.
Cassegård, Carl, and Håkan Thörn. "Post-Apocalyptic Environmentalism: The Green Movement in Times of Catastrophe." Palgrave Macmillan, 2022.
Heffernan, Teresa. "Post-Apocalyptic Culture: Modernism, Postmodernism, and the Twentieth Century Novel." University of Toronto press, 2008.
Herobeat Studios. "Endling: Extinction Is Forever." HandyGames. Windows, Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One. 2022.
Kaup, Monika. "New Ecological Realisms: Post-Apocalyptic Fiction and Contemporary Theory." Speculative Realism. Edinburgh University Press, 2021.
Mandel, Emily St John. "Station Eleven." Alfred A. Knopf, 2014.
Meyer, Nicholas, dir. "The Day After." ABC Circle Films, 1983.
Naughty Dog. "The Last of Us." Sony Interactive Entertainment. PlayStation 4. 2013.
Stanton, Andrew, dir. "WALL·E." Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios, FortyFour Studios, 2008.
Watkins, Susan. "Contemporary Women’s Post-Apocalyptic Fiction." Palgrave Studies in Contemporary Women’s Writing. Palgrave
Macmillan UK, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-48650-9.
Williams, Paul. "Race, Ethnicity and Nuclear War: Representations of Nuclear Weapons and Post Apocalyptic Worlds." Liverpool University Press, 2018.
Yeates, Robert. "American Cities in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction." Modern Americas. UCL Press, 2021.

Readings might be changed at a later date.

Additional information

Information on level of this course, year of study and semester when the course unit is delivered, types and amount of class hours - can be found in course structure diagrams of apropriate study programmes. This course is related to the following study programmes:

Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system:

Description of 4219-SD0093-OG in USOSweb