{"id":46392,"date":"2018-12-21T11:33:35","date_gmt":"2018-12-21T19:33:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=46392"},"modified":"2018-12-21T11:33:35","modified_gmt":"2018-12-21T19:33:35","slug":"understanding-apocalyptic-events-through-literature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/understanding-apocalyptic-events-through-literature\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding apocalyptic events through literature"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nIn recent years, we have seen an epic scale of destruction caused by\u00a0war, terrorism<\/a>,\u00a0global warming<\/a>,\u00a0famine<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0obliteration of human cultural artifacts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These events could be considered apocalyptic \u2014 either on a global scale, or as threats to specific communities.<\/p>\n

When I began studying apocalypses in literature four years ago, my focus was on events like\u00a0the Holocaust<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki<\/a>. I wanted to understand what sense we could make of humanity when the world has seen such apocalyptic situations.<\/p>\n

But I discovered the study of apocalypse is a deeper well than most people can fathom. The root meaning of \u201capocalypse,\u201d means \u201cuncovering\u201d or \u201clifting of the veil,\u201d which indicates that a revelation may be made at the end.<\/p>\n

As a student of both Western and Eastern literatures and cultures, I benefit from the cultural differences in the readings of apocalypses. In subcontinental Indian, especially Hindu, culture and texts,\u00a0apocalypses are not linear but cyclical<\/a>. South Asian literature may offer different connotations in cultural terms for personal apocalyptic events as well.<\/p>\n

The end of times has a special quality: that of sifting what is important from what is superficial and unnecessary. This distillation is not limited to material things that one carries across the final calamity. And apocalypses don\u2019t necessarily have to be all-encompassing in terms of destruction.<\/p>\n

Apocalyptic events can even be smaller in scale, both destroying and revealing at a very personal level. Small-scale personal apocalypses also push us to re-evaluate and streamline our ideas and conceptions about our lives.<\/p>\n

Revelations<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Opposing ideas exist about how to deal with apocalyptic events in a literary sense. Literary and cultural critic\u00a0Jacques Derrida<\/a>, in a glib statement about catastrophe, said that a total annihilation of human species, especially by nuclear fallout, is \u201cfabulously textual<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Derrida meant that while text looks like innocent marks on a page, in fact texts can have an explosive and unpredictable impact on readers. He was also pointing out a political and existential conundrum: while we find ourselves waiting for an absolute, final annihilation, all we can do is talk and write about it.<\/p>\n

Philosopher and cultural critic\u00a0Theodor Adorno<\/a>\u00a0presents an opposing school of thought with his much-debated idea that \u201cit is barbaric to write poetry after Auschwitz<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

An apocalyptic reading list<\/strong><\/h4>\n

My upcoming course, \u201cReading the End of the World,\u201d taught simultaneously in Saskatoon and in Ahmedabad, India, will look at both micro- and macro-level apocalypses. Our Saskatoon students will communicate with\u00a0our Ahmedabad students<\/a>\u00a0taught by my colleague, Chirag Trivedi, via video-conferencing technology. The model allows for students across continents to generate ideas for research and discuss texts across cultures in new ways.<\/p>\n

Our course\u2019s reading list explores what can be revealed through threats, destruction or personal crisis. Here is a list of some of the texts we will be studying:<\/p>\n

\u201cBullet in the Brain\u201d in\u00a0The Night in Question<\/em>\u00a0(1996)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tobias Wolff\u2019s\u00a0\u201cBullet in the Brain\u201d<\/a>\u00a0is one of the\u00a0most remarkable short stories in contemporary North American literature<\/a>. This story is a testament to what revelation and destruction can do simultaneously for one life; absolute destruction is intricately linked to ultimate epiphany.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Temporary Matter\u201d in\u00a0The Interpreter of Maladies<\/em>\u00a0(1999)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jhumpa Lahiri\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0story is about a couple realizing it is time to call an end to their relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cSquatter\u201d in\u00a0Tales from Firozsha Baag<\/em>\u00a0(1987)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rohinton Mistry\u2019s \u201cSquatter\u201d is a classroom favourite, about the importance of bowel movements.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe So Seldom Look on Love\u201d in the collection of the same title (1992)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Barbara Gowdy<\/a>\u00a0explores necrophilia in the short story \u201cWe So Seldom Look on Love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Things they Carried\u201d in the collection with the same title (1990)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tim O\u2019Brien\u2019s \u201cThe Things they Carried\u201d gives heft to all the objects that soldiers carry in time of battle.<\/p>\n

Walking with the Comrades<\/em>\u00a0(2011)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Arundhati Roy\u2019s\u00a0Walking with the Comrades<\/em><\/a>, first\u00a0published in 2010 as an essay in Outlook<\/em> magazine<\/a>, is in-depth understanding of what underground anti-capitalist revolution and disenfranchisement mean.<\/p>\n

I anticipate multi-dimensional, revivifying and boundary-pushing conversations with my students and my colleague, discussions in which we will explore how we might behave, what we may learn from, and what we can do about the threats that we face.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong> Sheheryar Badar Sheikh is a Graduate Student and TSDF Fellow at the University of Saskatchewan<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In recent years, we have seen an epic scale of destruction caused by\u00a0war, terrorism,\u00a0global warming,\u00a0famine\u00a0and the\u00a0obliteration of human cultural artifacts. These events could be considered apocalyptic \u2014 either on a global scale, or as threats to specific communities. When I began studying apocalypses in literature four years ago, my focus was on events like\u00a0the Holocaust\u00a0and\u00a0the […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":46393,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15645],"tags":[14187],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-46392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-literature"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUnderstanding apocalyptic events through literature - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/understanding-apocalyptic-events-through-literature\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Understanding apocalyptic events through literature - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In recent years, we have seen an epic scale of destruction caused by\u00a0war, terrorism,\u00a0global warming,\u00a0famine\u00a0and the\u00a0obliteration of human cultural artifacts. 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