The End of the World as We Know It. For a Postcolonial Investigation of the Meaning(s) of Environmental Catastrophe in Sci-Fi Films

This article explores fantasies behind ideas of disaster in terms of a regeneration of human society through or against a catastrophe generated by a non-human entity. I will investigate two products of mass visual culture, Annihilation by Alex Garland (2018), and Arrival by Denis Villeneuve (2016)....

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Gaia Giuliani
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra 2019-12-01
Series:e-cadernos ces
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journals.openedition.org/eces/5033
id doaj-03f65fdfe31b4987a8856759acdab69a
record_format Article
spelling doaj-03f65fdfe31b4987a8856759acdab69a2020-11-25T03:42:48ZengCentro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbrae-cadernos ces1647-07372019-12-013210.4000/eces.5033The End of the World as We Know It. For a Postcolonial Investigation of the Meaning(s) of Environmental Catastrophe in Sci-Fi FilmsGaia GiulianiThis article explores fantasies behind ideas of disaster in terms of a regeneration of human society through or against a catastrophe generated by a non-human entity. I will investigate two products of mass visual culture, Annihilation by Alex Garland (2018), and Arrival by Denis Villeneuve (2016). My analysis will rely on a reading against the grain of Fernando Meirelles’s Blindness (2008), M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening (2008), and Juan Antonio Bayona’s The Impossible (2012), which I have examined in earlier studies (Giuliani, 2016a, 2017b). I will seek to compare and contrast these films, tracing how they developed out of a series of events and texts while also contextualising them in relation to contemporary conceptualisations of crisis, risk, catastrophe and disaster.http://journals.openedition.org/eces/5033disasterpostcolonial studiesposthuman communicationscience fiction
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Gaia Giuliani
spellingShingle Gaia Giuliani
The End of the World as We Know It. For a Postcolonial Investigation of the Meaning(s) of Environmental Catastrophe in Sci-Fi Films
e-cadernos ces
disaster
postcolonial studies
posthuman communication
science fiction
author_facet Gaia Giuliani
author_sort Gaia Giuliani
title The End of the World as We Know It. For a Postcolonial Investigation of the Meaning(s) of Environmental Catastrophe in Sci-Fi Films
title_short The End of the World as We Know It. For a Postcolonial Investigation of the Meaning(s) of Environmental Catastrophe in Sci-Fi Films
title_full The End of the World as We Know It. For a Postcolonial Investigation of the Meaning(s) of Environmental Catastrophe in Sci-Fi Films
title_fullStr The End of the World as We Know It. For a Postcolonial Investigation of the Meaning(s) of Environmental Catastrophe in Sci-Fi Films
title_full_unstemmed The End of the World as We Know It. For a Postcolonial Investigation of the Meaning(s) of Environmental Catastrophe in Sci-Fi Films
title_sort end of the world as we know it. for a postcolonial investigation of the meaning(s) of environmental catastrophe in sci-fi films
publisher Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra
series e-cadernos ces
issn 1647-0737
publishDate 2019-12-01
description This article explores fantasies behind ideas of disaster in terms of a regeneration of human society through or against a catastrophe generated by a non-human entity. I will investigate two products of mass visual culture, Annihilation by Alex Garland (2018), and Arrival by Denis Villeneuve (2016). My analysis will rely on a reading against the grain of Fernando Meirelles’s Blindness (2008), M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening (2008), and Juan Antonio Bayona’s The Impossible (2012), which I have examined in earlier studies (Giuliani, 2016a, 2017b). I will seek to compare and contrast these films, tracing how they developed out of a series of events and texts while also contextualising them in relation to contemporary conceptualisations of crisis, risk, catastrophe and disaster.
topic disaster
postcolonial studies
posthuman communication
science fiction
url http://journals.openedition.org/eces/5033
work_keys_str_mv AT gaiagiuliani theendoftheworldasweknowitforapostcolonialinvestigationofthemeaningsofenvironmentalcatastropheinscififilms
AT gaiagiuliani endoftheworldasweknowitforapostcolonialinvestigationofthemeaningsofenvironmentalcatastropheinscififilms
_version_ 1724523538280349696