The Last Man and Gothic Sympathy / Michael Cameron.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cameron, Michael, 1989- author.

Series:

Cambridge elements. Elements in the Gothic 2634-8721.

Elements in the Gothic Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

End of the world--Fiction.

End of the world.

Science fiction--History and criticism.

Science fiction.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (68 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, England : Cambridge University Press, [2024]

Summary:

This Element explores the theme of 'Gothic sympathy' as it appears in a collection of 'Last Man' novels. A liminal site of both possibility and irreconcilability, Gothic sympathy at once challenges the anthropocentric bias of traditional notions of sympathetic concern, premising compassionate relations with other beings - animal, vegetal, etc. - beyond the standard measure of the liberal-humanist subject, and at the same time acknowledges the horror that is the ineluctable and untranslatable otherness accompanying, interrupting, and shaping such a sympathetic connection. Many examples of 'Last Man' fiction explore the dialectical impasse of Gothic sympathy by dramatizing complicated relationships between a lone liberal-humanist subject and other-than-human or posthuman subjects that will persist beyond humanity's extinction. Such confrontations as they appear in Mary Shelley's The Last Man, H.G. Wells's The Time Machine, and Richard Matheson's I Am Legend will be explored

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 22 Feb 2024).

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9781009357524

1009357522

9781009357517

1009357514

9781009357500

1009357506