Millennial literatures of the Americas, 1492-2002
By: by Thomas O. Beebee.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 248
ISBN-13: 9780195339383
Subjects: America -- Literatures -- History and criticism
Description: "With an impressive interdisciplinary approach that employs insights from history, ethnography, and theology, Thomas O. Beebee provides nuanced readings of the apocalyptic vision in a diverse group of forms and writers, stretching from the letters of Christopher Columbus to the lyrics of Bob Marley and Bob Dylan, the poetry of Ernesto Cardenal, and the bestselling novels of the Left Behind franchise, among other works. Throughout, he pointedly illustrates how millennial discourse has been used as a technology of control to further national and imperial agendas while paradoxically, often simultaneously, serving the forces of resistance. Drawing on a wide variety of records, his analysis shows that repeated eruptions of imagined, epochal conflicts reveal native populations fighting against the eradication of traditional ways of life, making sense of unprecedented violence, and searching for sources of origin. It seems that Americans - North, South, Middle, and Caribbean - tend to define themselves by narrating their End."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: The new Jerusalem; title: Land without evil; title: Hybrid messiahs; title: Tribulations of the late nineteenth century; title: Kingdoms of this world : millennial literature as reflective dissonance; title: Golden flying saucers : Ernesto Cardenal and millennial ufology; title: The old, millennial America : Bob Dylan and the tradition(s); title: The DNA of the lamb : the race for the end (times) in millennial fiction.