Psychoanalyzing the Post-Apocalypse

‘Psychoanalyzing the Post-Apocalypse: Psychoanalytic Approaches to 21st Century Fiction and Film’ offers an interdisciplinary exploration of contemporary post-apocalyptic literature and cinema through psychoanalytic theory. Bringing together studies of major novels, films, and television series, the volume demonstrates how Freudian, Lacanian, Jungian, and post-Lacanian perspectives illuminate recurring themes such as trauma, desire, mourning, identity, repression, survival, and psychic renewal in worlds shaped by catastrophe.
The collection distinguishes itself by applying diverse psychoanalytic frameworks to a broad range of twenty-first-century texts, including Oryx and Crake, The Stone Gods, Station Eleven, War of the Worlds, Vesper, The Road, The Leftovers, and 2012. Rather than offering generalized discussions of apocalypse, each chapter provides a theoretically grounded analysis of a specific work, revealing how narratives of collapse reflect contemporary anxieties while also imagining new forms of subjectivity, ethical relations, and resilience.
Positioned at the intersection of psychoanalytic criticism, literary studies, film studies, and cultural theory, the volume advances current scholarship by foregrounding the psychological dimensions of post-apocalyptic storytelling and demonstrating the versatility of psychoanalytic approaches in interpreting ecological, technological, and existential crises. It contributes an original perspective to the growing body of research on post-apocalyptic fiction by integrating multiple psychoanalytic traditions across diverse media and cultural contexts.
The book will serve as a valuable resource for researchers, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates in literature, film, media, psychoanalysis, and cultural studies. It is equally suitable for classroom adoption in courses on contemporary fiction, speculative literature, adaptation, and critical theory, while offering scholars a methodological framework for future interdisciplinary research on apocalypse and the human psyche.

Assoc. Prof. Ercan Gürova has been a faculty member at Ankara University, Turkey since 2005. He received his Ph.D. in English Culture and Literature. His recent publications include: “Mars and the Martians as Others in Philip K. Dick’s Story and Its Film Adaptation” (‘Science Fantasy,’ Lexington Books); “Human Vulnerability in Jack London’s The Scarlet Plague” (‘Depictions of Pestilence in Literature, Media, and Art,’ Cambridge Scholars Publishing); “After the End: Post-Apocalyptic Features in The Road and The Survivor” (‘Crossing Boundaries: Contemporary Readings in Comparative Literature,’ Duvar Publishing). He is also the translator of ‘Freshwater – Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Barrett Browning – Selected Poems and Three Wayfarers’ (Üç Yolcu) by Thomas Hardy. His research interests include science fiction, apocalyptic and dystopian narratives, robot ethics, animal studies, and translation studies.