Last Midnight

Leisa A. Clark is a professor of arts and humanities, teaching diverse class subjects such as art history, media studies, and film history. She is the author of a variety of books, ranging from fictional comedic space opera to critical edited collections. She lives in St. Petersburg, Florida. Amanda Firestone is an assistant professor at the University of Tampa in the Department of Communication, teaching media studies and digital identity. Mary F. Pharr is a professor emeritus of English at Florida Southern College. She lives in Lakeland, Florida.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsPrefaceAmanda FirestoneIntroduction (Mary F. Pharr, Leisa A. Clark and Amanda Firestone)Prelude—We Don’t Want to Miss a Thing: Millennial Technologies of Participation and Intimacy (Andrew McAlister)I: Culture, Values and AnxietyThe South Will Rise Again: Contagion, War and Reconstruction in The Walking Dead, Seasons One Through Five (Angela Tenga)The Recuperation of Wounded Hegemonic Masculinity on Doomsday Preppers (Tiffany A. Christian)The Last ­Non-Judgment: Postmodern Apocalypse in Battlestar Galactica (Stephen Joyce)The Emergence of the Lost Apocalypse from 28 Days Later to Snowpiercer (Mark McCarthy)II. Globalization, Corporate Power and Class StrugglesGoing Viral in a World Gone Global: How Contagion Reinvents the Outbreak Narrative (Dahlia Schweitzer)The Second Coming of Left Behind and the Deglobalization of Christian Apocalypse (Tim Bryant)Corporate Abuse and Social Inequality in RoboCop and Fido(Bill Clemente)We Go Forward: An Inquiry into The Hunger Games and Other ­Class-Based Dystopias in Millennial Cinema(Lennart Soberon)III. Memory and IdentityDetermined About Determinism: Genetic Manipulation, Memory and Identity in Shaping the Postapocalyptic Self in Dark Angel and Divergent (Max Despain)The Apocalyptic Mental Time Travel Film: Erasing Disaster in Edge of Tomorrow and ­X-Men: Days of Future Past (Ryan Lizardi)In the Flesh: The Politics of Apocalyptic Memory (Frances Auld)In Search of a New Paradise and the Construction of Hell in The 100 (Ceren Mert and Amanda Firestone)IV. Simulation, Psychology and InevitabilityThe Apocalypse Will Not Take Place: Megamonster Films (Cloverfield, Pacific Rim, Godzilla) in the Postmodern Age (Sharon Diane King)Psychological Significance Within Postapocalyptic Film: Two Unique Approaches to Adaptation (Patrick L. Smith)“To Err Is Human”: The Human Species and the Inevitable Apocalypse in The World’s End (Mary F. Pharr)V. Being Human in a ­Techno-UniverseMore Man Than Machine: The Construction of Body and Identity in Battlestar Galactica and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Leisa A. Clark)­Techno-Apocalypse: Technology, Religion and Ideology in Bryan Singer’s H+ (Eddie Brennan)Technoscience as Alien Invasion in XCOM: Enemy Within (Bjarke Liboriussen)Running for My Life: Convergence Culture, Transmedia Storytelling and Community Building in the Smartphone Application Zombies, Run! (Amanda Firestone)Appendix: Apocalyptic Criticism, Films, Television Series and Video Games (Leisa A. Clark, Mary F. Pharr and Amanda Firestone)About the ContributorsIndex