Postapocalyptic fiction and the social contract
Subtitle: "we'll not go home again"
By: Claire P. Curtis
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Lanham
Language: eng
Number of pages: 199
ISBN-13: 9780739142035; 9780739142059
Subjects: American Science fiction; Survival in literature; End of the world in literature; Regression (Civilization) in literature; Literature and society; History and criticism; Science fiction; Social contract in literature; Apocalypse in literature; History
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 191-194) and index.
Table of contents: title: Last one out, please turn out the lights : On the beach and The road; title: "Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short" : Hobbes and Lucifer's Hammer, the classic post-apocalyptic text; title: "Industrious and rational" : John Locke and Alas, Babylon: the rational life post-apocalypse; title: Man is born free; and everywhere is in chains: Rousseau and Malevil: the responsibilities of civil life; title: "Maybe effort counted" : John Rawls and thought experiments; title: "To take root among the stars" : Octavia Butler's parable of the sower and rethinking the social contract; title: "We can choose" : Octavia Butler's parable of the talents and the meaning of security.