Download - Apocalyptic basics
Basics of Apocalypticism
Introduction to Multimedia CompositionSpring 2011
Origin
Genre of prophetic works written in early centuries after Jesus
A new kind of prophecy Classic example: Revelation, in the
Christian scriptures Predecessor in the Hebrew Bible: Daniel
Definitions
The word "apocalypse" means revelation, or unveiling
Refers to the disclosure of a hidden order or plan
Often presented specially to the writer
Classical
"A genre of revelatory literature with a narrative framework, in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendent reality which is both temporal, insofar as it envisages eschatological salvation, and spatial insofar as it involves another, supernatural world" (J. Collins)
Doomsday
The Christian apocalypse reveals catastrophes that will lead to the end of the world
Tribulations Armageddon The millennium
Our world ends in destruction It is replaced by a perfect, permanent one
Pessimistic?
Written at desperate time Persecution and oppression for early Church
Suggests no hope for change in this world But to wait for salvation and endure suffering
Optimistic?
The millennium is 1000 years of peace on Earth Unclear when it will occur, or if it already has
begun The world to come is perfect
But only for believers
Narrative
In the Christian tradition, the hidden plan is historical
Thus the apocalypse becomes a narrative -- a story, a plot, or a sequence in time
About the future Adaptable
Rhetoric
Revelation's influence has gone beyond literal interpretations of events
A widely used framework for speaking and writing
About present problems About the future
"A mode of thought and discourse that empowers its audience to live in a time of disorientation and disorder by revealing to them a fundamental plan" (Brummett)
Conventional
"A kind of discourse having to do with the end of the world, with cataclysm and change, that both energizes audiences and is used by many people
"[About] the end, of final things ... [also about] the sense of disaster or crisis ... [and] the sense of a transition from this world, era, or state of being to another one" (Brummett)
Secularization
Apocalypticism may underly non-religious ways of thinking about time, change, and conflict
Progress Revolution Absolutism
The 20th Century
"World" wars: 1914-18, 1939-45 Cold War: 1945-1991
Nuclear arms race Environmental movement: since 1960s Progress?
Today
Many real, serious threats to contemporary Western way of life
US in decline? Environment? Technology?