Remainders of the American Century: Post-Apocalyptic Novels in the Age of US Decline

289 Pages·2021·2.093 MB·English

by  Brent Ryan Bellamy

Remainders of the American Century

Remainders
of the American
Century Post-Apocalyptic
Novels in the Age
of US Decline
Brent ryan Bell amy
Wesleyan University Press Middletown, Connecticut
Wesleyan University Press
Middletown CT 06459
www.wesleyan.edu/wespress
© 2021 Brent Ryan Bellamy
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Designed by Richard Hendel
Typeset in Miller and Klavika by Integrated Publishing Solutions
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bellamy, Brent Ryan, author.
Title: Remainders of the American century : post-apocalyptic novels in the
age of US decline / Brent Ryan Bellamy.
Description: Middletown, Connecticut : Wesleyan University Press, [2021] |
Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “A literary study
of mainstream and science fiction novels shows the contest between the
reactionary impulse of the post-apocalyptic mode and the progressive
impetus for a new world”— Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021000704 (print) | LCCN 2021000705 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780819580313 (cloth) | ISBN 9780819580320 (trade paperback) |
ISBN 9780819580337 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: American fiction—20th century—History and criticism. |
American fiction—21st century—History and criticism. | Science fiction,
American—History and criticism. | Dystopias in literature. | Apocalypse in
literature.
Classification: LCC PS374.D96 B45 2021 (print) | LCC PS374.D96 (ebook) |
DDC 813/.509372—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021000704
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021000705
5 4 3 2 1
Cover Illustration: Clyfford Still, PHX-44. Courtesy Clyfford Still Museum, Denver,
CO © City and County of Denver / ARS, NY.
Dedicated to family,
immediate, extended,
and found; and to
Alex and George,
partners in thought
and deed

The study of post-apocalypse is a study of
what disappears and what remains, and of
how the remainder has been transformed.
—JameS Berger, After the End

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction:
Post-Apocalyptic Novels in the Age of US Decline 1
Part one
the Post-aPocalyPtic Mode
1 Post-Apocalypse Tropes 31
2 Reduced Futures 52
3 Remaindered Books 74
Part two
the contested Politics of Us decline
4 Old and New Americas 103
5 Segregated Futures 130
6 The Reproductive Imperative 154
7 Automobility Regression 172
Conclusion:
Remainders of the American Century 201
Notes 209
Bibliography 241
Index 263