Rewriting Apocalypse in Canadian Fiction

By Marlene Goldman
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Hardcover : 9780773529045, 224 pages, August 2005
Ebook (PDF) : 9780773572942, 224 pages, August 2005

Description

Rewriting Apocalypse in Contemporary Canadian Fiction is the first book to explore the literary, psychological, political, and cultural repercussions of the apocalypse in the fiction of Timothy Finley, Michael Ondaatje, Margaret Atwood, Thomas King, and Joy Kogawa. While writers from diverse nations have adopted and adapted the biblical narrative, these Canadian authors introduce particular twists to the familiar myth of the end. Goldman demonstrates that they share a marked concern with purgation of the non-elect, the loss experienced by the non-elect, and the traumatic impact of apocalyptic violence. She also analyzes Canadian apocalyptic accounts as crisis literature written in the context of the Cold War - written against the fear of total destruction.