Crime and the imaginary of disaster: post-apocalyptic fictions and the crisis of social order

125 Pages·2015·1.033 MB·English

by  Yar, Majid

Crime and the Imaginary of Disaster
DOI: 10.1057/9781137509079.0001
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DOI: 10.1057/9781137509079.0001
Crime and the
Imaginary of Disaster:
Post-Apocalyptic
Fictions and the Crisis
of Social Order
Majid Yar
Professor of Sociology, University of Hull, UK
DOI: 10.1057/9781137509079.0001
© Majid Yar 2015
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-50906-2
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in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2015 by
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ISBN: 978–1–137–50907–9 PDF
ISBN: 978-1-349-50614-9
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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www.palgrave.com/pivot
doi: 10.1057/9781137509079
For Rodanthi – with thanks
DOI: 10.1057/9781137509079.0001
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
1 Situating the Apocalypse, Crime and
Problem of Social Order 1
2 Law and Disorder in the Post-Apocalyptic
Landscape: Social Breakdown, Sovereign
Power and the State of Emergency 23
3 Dangerous Others: ‘Race’ and Crime after
the Apocalypse 41
4 Crime, Disaster and the Crisis of the
Gender Order 57
5 The Utopian Apocalypse: Crime, Justice and
Redemption 76
List of Fictions 92
Bibliography 95
Index 112
vi DOI: 10.1057/9781137509079.0001
Acknowledgements
I wish to express my appreciation to the many research-
ers, scholars and writers whose work has inspired and
informed this study. Many thanks are due to Julia Willan
at Palgrave Macmillan, who has been hugely supportive in
helping me realise my efforts to develop a distinctive take
on cultural criminology, one that marries perspectives
from criminology, sociology, cultural and media studies,
and humanities scholarship. Likewise, I’m very appre-
ciative of the entire editorial team at Palgrave Macmillan
with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working over the past
few years across a number of projects. Three academic
colleagues in particular deserve special mention for their
assistance with the development of this project. Firstly,
thanks to my colleague Melissa Dearey, who was kind
enough to share with me her expertise on matters related
to religion, theodicy and evil. Secondly, thanks to Travis
Linnemann for his support and for supplying me with
some great examples of contemporary ‘zombie culture’.
Thirdly, my heartfelt gratitude to Rodanthi Tzanelli, who
not only shared with me insights drawn from her own
ongoing research endeavours, but was also generous
enough to provide extremely valuable feedback on the
draft manuscript.
DOI: 10.1057/9781137509079.0002 vii

1
Situating the Apocalypse,
Crime and Problem
of Social Order
Abstract: This chapter maps the theoretical and conceptual
framework of the study, taking as its focus two key themes
that organise the book as a whole. Firstly, it explores the
meanings of the apocalyptic, situating these within the
cultural history of the West. Tracing apocalyptic thinking
from its religious roots in Christian and Judaic theology,
it follows the evolution of such ideas into the supposedly
secular era of modernity. Central here is the fundamental
ambiguity of the apocalyptic – it can be both negative,
marking the wholesale destruction of the world as we know
it, but also positive, a mechanism of renewal and redemption.
Secondly, it seeks to connect contemporary discourses on
crime and disorder to apocalyptic thinking through their
shared preoccupation with the problems of evil and suffering.
It concludes by setting out the book’s approach to textual
sampling and analysis, the basis for the exploration of
post-apocalyptic fictions in the chapters that follow.
Yar, Majid. Crime and the Imaginary of Disaster:
Post-Apocalyptic Fictions and the Crisis of Social Order.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
doi: 10.1057/9781137509079.0003.
DOI: 10.1057/9781137509079.0003 1