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Post-Apocalyptic Earth
• Overview • Themes and Motifs • Key Works and Figures • Sources •
Overview

Stories about what happens after a cataclysmic disaster--either natural or manmade--have long been a staple of science fiction.

These stories may overlap the topics of ecology and utopia/dystopia.

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Themes and Motifs

Stories of post-apocalyptic Earth focus on what happens to the environment and population after a catastrophe. Some pick up soon after the disaster; others present an environment irrevocably changed by the disaster.

The nature of the disaster varies: some common disasters are:

  • plague
  • nuclear war
  • environmental disaster

Most stories focus on a group of survivors. However, some stories focus onor conclude with either a lone survivor or a couple as Adam and Eve figures.

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Key Works and Figures
  • The Last Man by Mary Shelley
  • The Scarlet Plague by Jack London
  • Earth Abides by George R. Stewart
  • A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller
  • "A Boy and His Dog" by Harlan Ellison
  • The Stand by Stephen King
  • Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm

For more titles, see
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Sources
Nicholls, Peter. "Holocaust and After." The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. ed. John Clute and Peter Nicholls. New York: St. Martins Griffin, 1993.
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