Postmodernity and the Imagination of the Apocalypse: A Study of Genre

Summary

Introduction

When some people speak of our era as one that suffers the malaise of philosophical uncertainty causing a sense of urgency, such people speak of a time that is considered ready for change. It is part of human nature to want to reduce tension and anxiety caused by uncertain and anxious situations as quickly as possible. There is no doubt that there is a range of possible responses to situations of increased tension, social or psychological. Most often the reduction of excessive stimulation appears in small, localized, and relatively uneventful reactions. However, the human drive to reduce anxiety also surfaces in dramatic and revolutionary ways: intellectual revolutions (in the form of paradigm shifts), on the one hand, and millennial movements, on the other.

In this article I propose to examine the uncertain postmodern situation as it is illuminated by western culture's propensity to make myths about end times. I suggest that because it allows for no certain ground for speculation about a comprehensive world-view, the postmodern perspective reflects a millennial-styled deliberation about the end of the present order of existence and the emergence of another. I submit that our predilection to make myths, to imagine our world in mythic themes, understood to operate in relation to the undergirding apocalyptic character of the western ethos and the expiration of the second millennium, makes it imperative to investigate how the contemporary West reveals its attitudes toward the world.