Living in End Times

Doomsday predictions/apocalyptic themes have become commonplace. Between "End of History" theses/Mayan Calendar predictions/posthumanist theories/the Rapture, and environmental/financial collapse, it seems we are living in what many believe to be End Times. This course will examine some principal clusters of ideas around finality: posthumanism/singularity, environmental collapse, patriot survivalism, and post-politics. We will look at a number of cultural products: traditional fiction/non-fiction, blogs/podcasts/films. It will be less important to establish whether the Mayan calendar calculations are accurate than seeing the connections between those claims and the claims of survivalists/Rapture theorists. Taken together, what do all these claims say about this moment in history? Enrollment limited to 25.