It's the End of the World as We Know It, and I Feel Fine: Public Pedagogies of the Apocalypse

• In Event: 34.079 - Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: 34.079-7 - Curriculums of Popular Culture

Abstract

We explore two converging sites of pedagogical address to articulate how these pedagogies form a sort of totalizing landscape for discussions of the apocalypse and celebrating the saviors, microbial and otherwise, who will bring us from the brink of annihilation. First, we take up additional news accounts that simultaneously downplay the presence of apocalyptic times and inscribe science as a near-deific panacea for the world’s wounds. Second, we analyze Disney Pixar’s post-apocalyptic WALL-E in its similar pedagogical functions. We argue that public pedagogies of the apocalypse have minimized the role of human activity in ecological collapse; created the notion of apocalypse as event, rather than a process; and posited science as a savior readied to halt the world’s end.

Authors

• Jake Burdick, Purdue University

• Jennifer April Sandlin, Arizona State University