Apocalypse Revisited: A Critical Study on End Times

Book excerpt: This volume was first published by Inter-Disciplinary Press in 2015. Mankind’s fascination with the Apocalypse is not new. Starting from the Hindu notions of Kali Yuga to 2012 Phenomenon, Apocalypse has been a part of our lives in the form of a cultural formation, natural threat, fictional entity, ideological construct, political fear or catastrophic end. Apocalyptic discourses underline how one culture perceives and reflects pain, trauma, loss and fear as well as indicating the ability to face and get ready for disaster. This inter-disciplinary and academic study aims to discuss the end of the world in multiple contexts where the popularity of apocalypse always reigns. In the scope of this work, readers will see the multi-dimensional nature of the Apocalypse referring more to progress rather than end or beginning, an in-between situation, a becoming, a formation; local yet global phenomenon; a product of fantasy plus a constructed reality; both an object of consumption and life consuming mechanism, an ideological presence in the absence of larger meta-narratives.