After The End: Representations Of Post-Apocalypse [Paperback]

James Berger (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: University of Minnesota Press; 1st edition (March 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816629331
• ISBN-13: 978-0816629336
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #326,130 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful and complex, January 18, 2011

By 

sigbjorn80 - See all my reviews

This review is from: After The End: Representations Of Post-Apocalypse (Paperback)

I'm not terribly sure why the first reviewer lobbed such a negative assessment at this book. Even more puzzling is his charge that he was "looking for analysis of post-apocalyptic film and literature" and somehow got something else.

Berger uses the idea of apocalypse in order to explore representations of both the imagined end of the world (as found in St. John's Revelation, for example, or the Terminator movies) as well as events which traumatize on a comparable mass scale (the Holocaust, for example). Among the films and texts he analyzes are "Eve's Tattoo," by Emily Prager; _The White Hotel_, by D.M. Thomas, _Beloved_, by Toni Morrison, and the oddly futuristic film _Until the End of the World_. I suppose if one were to define "apocalypse" more narrowly, one might be disappointed by this theoretical approach. I found it illuminating, however. (He writes at some length in the book's first chapter about Americans' longstanding pop-cultural fascination with films like Mad Max and Independence Day, begging a re-examination of why we are drawn so intensely to moments of mass destruction.)

Finally, I didn't find the book especially "jargony," just complex. (Then again, I'm a Ph.D. student in rhetoric, so perhaps Berger's professional vocabulary as an English professor is closer to mine than the other reviewer's.) I've actually cited _After the End_ numerous times in my own work, both published and for class. If you're got a serious academic interest in media, trauma theory, or late twentieth-century American culture, this book definitely belongs on your "to read" list.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for Students of Apocalyptic Culture, August 16, 2011

By 

Jose J. Ramirez (New Haven, CT) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: After The End: Representations Of Post-Apocalypse (Paperback)

If you're looking for extensive commentary on Biblical apocalypse, millennial religious movements, or apocalyptic science fiction, this is not your book. But it doesn't pretend to be that kind of book, either. Instead, After the End offers an intriguing psychoanalytic theory of apocalyptic culture, a study of how novelists and poststructuralist theorists represent the Holocaust, and readings of contemporary American literature (Morrison, Pynchon, etc.), to name some of the book's major topics. If you're a student of apocalyptic culture and you're interested in broader theoretical and historical issues, you absolutely must read this book.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Apocalypse Not, April 16, 2011

By 

James - See all my reviews

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This review is from: After The End: Representations Of Post-Apocalypse (Paperback)

It would be a stretch to claim that this work engages in false advertising, as Berger does discuss apocalyptic literature and movies. However, like most books derived from a dissertation, _After the End_ has too narrow of a focus and reflects the authors' own sensibilities and worldview. To wit, when three pages into the text the author is discussing how he "endure[d] the Reagan presidency" as opposed to the symbolism and plots of _Earth Abides_ versus _Alas Babylon_ then some conclusions can be drawn. Further conclusions can be drawn from the inclusion of the movie _Beloved_ in a work that alludes to being about post-apocalyptic media. Ergo, if you're looking for a summary of works such as the aforementioned books, _Lucifer's Hammer_, or _Warday_ then this is not the book for you.