CAPAS RESEARCH PROJECT - Adam Stock Deserts and drylands in (post)apocalyptic speculative imaginaries
Deserts are associated with apocalyptic and eschatological myths, prophecies and legends in many cultures and faiths, from Aboriginal Dreaming to Islam, Judaism and Christianity. In the context of the contemporary climate crisis, the image of an arid landscape has become a dominant cliché. My project locates modern uses of desert settings in speculative genres within a longer history of deserts as a common trope in (post) apocalyptic imaginaries. I aim to uncover what cultural representations of such spaces can teach us about the apocalyptic, and what in turn this tells us about how we hope to adapt to a warming planet. While western speculative fictions have associated apocalyptic scenarios with deserts, inhabitants of such landscapes often experienced the arrival of western colonial powers as themselves apocalyptic events. At CAPAS I will work on a monograph exploring what often appears as merely a backdrop for apocalyptic scenarios, contributing to debate on the production of space in the apocalyptic and the nature of setting in narrative cultural forms. I aim to re-direct attention in the environmental humanities toward deserts, and to better understand some of the cultural anxieties and fears to which apocalyptic imaginaries in speculative genres respond.