Apocalypse Now? Towards a Cinematic Realized Eschatology

Christopher Deacy’s chapter (Ch. 4) focuses on the eschatological provenance of films which, at face value at least, would seem to militate against an eschatological frame of reference. Deacy has in mind here the way in which films that have an earthly, this-worldly orientation have a crucial role to play in eschatology-film work as they concur with debates in Christian theology over so-called ‘realized eschatology’, where the eschaton is believed to have been inaugurated already. Even in films that do bear witness to a traditional afterlife schema, Deacy indicates that it is nevertheless the case that earthly realities are being used as the point of departure, to the point that it is this life, rather than the afterlife, which is being affirmed, and that death comprises nothing more than an opportunity for providing ethical lessons about how to behave in the here and now

Haiti Apocalypse Now

Of all the literary and cultural traditions in the Caribbean, none has produced a body of work as rich, diverse, and challenging as that of the French-speaking islands. Informed by the great French traditions of intellectual inquiry and artistic innovation, the francophone Caribbean tradition has seen the emergence of artists, activists, and theorists such as Aimé Césaire, Léon-Gontran Damas, René Ménil, Suzanne Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Édouard Glissant, Patrick Chamoiseau, Jean Bernabé, Raphael Confiant, Maryse Condé, Jean–Price Mars, Jacques Roumain, Jacques-Stephen Alexis, René Depestre, Frankétienne, Émile Ollivier, Marie Chauvet, Dany Laferrière, and Edwidge Danticat, to name only a few. The French–speaking islands and French Guyana have therefore a long, established tradition of prolific and incisive intellectual and artistic output, and have had considerable influence across the whole Caribbean literary and cultural spectrum. Until ten or fifteen years ago, the départements d’outre mer were in large part the main focus of any analysis of Francophone Caribbean culture. Since then, however, the other important French– and Creole-speaking nation, Haiti, has been the subject of unprecedented attention, both from scholars and the general public. Independent since 1804, the «first black republic» in the New World is at once a symbol of anti–colonial resistance and of postcolonial decay and economic, political, and social problems. At once years ahead of and years behind the rest of the Caribbean, Haiti demands critical attention, and in this article, I will summarize some of the major movements in Haitian literary culture, before focusing on the Duvalier period and the ways in which contemporary artists address the memory of that most traumatic period.De las tradiciones literarias y culturales del Caribe, ninguna ha producido un corpus tan rico, diverso y desafiante como el de las islas francófonas. Inspirado por las grandes tradiciones francesas de la búsqueda intelectual y la innovación artística, la tradición del Caribe francófono ha visto el surgimiento de artistas, activistas, y teóricos como Aimé Césaire, Léon-Gontran Damas, René Ménil, Suzanne Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Édouard Glissant, Patrick Chamoiseau, Jean Bernabé, Rápale Confiant, Maryse Condé, Jean-Price Mars, Jacques Roumain, Jacques-Stephen Alexis, René Depestre, Frankétienne, Émile Ollivier, Marie Chauvet, Dany Lafèrriere, y Edwidge Danticat por solo nombrar a unos pocos. Las islas francófonas y la Guayana Francesa tienen por tanto una larga y bien establecida tradición de producción intelectual y artística prolífica e incisiva, y han tenido una influencia considerable a través de todo el entorno literario y cultural caribeño. Hasta hace diez o quince años, los départements d’outre mer eran en gran parte el foco principal de cualquier análisis de la cultura francófona caribeña. Desde entonces, sin embargo, la otra nación de habla francófona y créole, Haití, ha sido objeto de una atención sin precedentes, por parte de investigadores así como del público en general. Independiente desde 1804, la «primera república negra» del Nuevo Mundo es un símbolo tanto de resistencia anticolonial como de declive postcolonial, así como de problemas económicos, políticos y sociales. A la vez avanzada y rezagada en el tiempo respecto al resto del Caribe, Haití merece la atención de la crítica. En este artículo haré un recuento de los principales movimientos de la cultura literaria en Haití, para luego centrarme en el período de Duvalier y en las estrategias que los artistas contemporáneos han utilizado para indagar sobre la memoria de ese periodo tan traumático

Anthony Davies: Apocalypse Now

1000-word text to accompany an exhibition of Anthony Davies' "Apocalypse Now" woodcut prints, Aratoi: Wairarapa Museum of Art and History, December 2013

The Gods of My Father Terah’: Abraham the Iconoclast and the Polemics with the Divine Body Traditions in the Apocalypse of Abraham

The first eight chapters of the Apocalypse of Abraham recount the early years of the young hero of the faith who is depicted as a fighter against the idolatrous practices of his father Terah. The conceptual developments found in this section of the work, especially in the depictions of the idolatrous statues, seem to play an important role in the work\u27s overall retraction of the anthropomorphic understanding of the deity. In the depictions of the idol Bar-Eshath (`the Son of Fire\u27) and some other human-like figures, whose features are vividly reminiscent of the familiar attributes of the anthropomorphic portrayals of the deity in Ezekiel and some other biblical and pseudepigraphical accounts, one can detect subtle polemics with the divine body traditions. This article investigates these conceptual developments in the Apocalypse of Abraham and seeks to understand their place in the larger anti-corporeal ideology of the Slavonic pseudepigraphon

Apocalyptic Beauty

A potent and formative text for a theological aesthetics faithful to the God revealed in the Scriptures is the Apocalypse of John (Revelation). An apocalyptic viewpoint is beautiful inasmuch as it observes the whole from within the part of time/space and inasmuch as the apocalyptic vision provides considerable unity of diverse theological themes with various expansions and enhancements, hence mimicking the very function of theological beauty to communicate the whole (God) in the part (here, in space-time). This essay traces major themes throughout Scripture, utilizing inter-textual interpretation en route, and seeks to clarify the Book of Revelation\u27s role in recapitulation, consummation, and consolation (i.e. beauty). Commenting on how the Apocalypse meets the criteria for being theologically beautiful, this essay then seeks to show how this role of beauty--and in particular, consolation--attracted the early Christian devotees visiting/dwelling-in the catacombs (A.D. 150-500) to make the Apocalypse of John one of the major contributors to their artwork

Post-Apocalyptic Geographies and Structural Appropriation

Excerpt from Routledge Companion to Transnational American Studies, edited by Nina Morgan, Alfred Hornung, and Takayuki Tatsum

Malediction resurrected : ins finstere Herz von Apocalypse Now - Redux

Vor über zwanzig Jahren erregte Francis Ford Coppola mit seinem atemberaubenden, visionären Vietnamfilm Apocalypse now (1979) weltweit Aufsehen: In beklemmenden, packenden und irritierenden Bildern, untermalt von dem Doors-Klassiker „The End“ erzählte er von der Reise des Armee-Agenten Willard (Martin Sheen) durch den Dschungel, um den offenbar grössenwahnsinnigen Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) zu liquidieren. Nun kommt Coppolas Meisterwerk erneut in die Kinos: Redux - noch einmal zum Beginn gehen, um das Geschehen um fünfzig Minuten erweitert neu zu sehen

Capitalist apocalypse in the painting of John Martin and Gordon Cheung

Taking as its starting point Tate Britain’s recent John Martin retrospective, entitled John Martin: Apocalypse, this paper considers the possibility that depictions of biblical apocalyptic scenes in Martin’s paintings are actually metaphors for revolution (French and American). The frst half of the paper investigates possible links between Martin’s apocalyptic imagery, British imperial ambitions and the rise of capitalism. It also considers how Martin’s plans for urban redevelopment are linked to his preoccupation with cataclysmic doom. Through icono- graphical readings of Martin’s paintings the paper hypoth-esizes that themes such as the fall of great civilizations and the wrath of god are not coincidental but concerns contemporary to Martin caused by capitalist expansion. The second part of the paper goes on to investigate the possibility that our contemporary interest in the apocalypse is in fact, just as it was in Martin’s time, a metaphor for militant unrest, which is manifested in theory and culture because of our inability to imagine the end of capitalism in this context the paper turns to contemporary painter Gordon Cheung to reconsider the idea, attributed to Jameson and Žižek, that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism