Before the End: Extinction, Anticipation, and Mourning in 21st-Century American Fiction

这个项目认为21世纪的美国灭绝小说是对生态灾难的生存威胁做出回应的预期哀悼的表达。我调查了叙述、思考和哀悼人类灭绝的难度，并认为这些文本与之前关于世界末日的神学叙述和最近关于全球灾难的后世界末日的想象有很大的不同。该项目将重点放在理解气候灾难及其独特的悲痛反应的认识论困难上。我指出了用来处理这一悲痛的代表性战略及其失败，认为没有令人满意的结案要求对环境威胁承担责任和采取行动。

This project considers 21st-century American extinction novels as articulations of anticipatory mourning thatrespond to the existential threat of ecological catastrophe. I investigate the difficulty of narrating,considering, and grieving human extinction, and argue that these texts diverge significantly from previoustheological narratives of apocalypse, and recent post-apocalyptic imaginings of global disaster. The projectdirects crucial attention to the epistemological difficulties of comprehending climate catastrophe and itsdistinctive grief responses. I identify the representational strategies used to process this grief, and theirfailure, arguing that the absence of satisfactory closure solicits the need for responsibility and action againstenvironmental threat.