The apocalyptic prophesy of the Book of Revelation is meant to convey a sense of cosmic order, a reassurance that God has a master plan and will eventually deliver humanity (or some of it) from suffering and chaos. In this sense, the Book of Revelation and other apocalyptic narratives are stories designed to bring comfort to communities afflicted by persecution and violence. At the same time, the text prompts a powerless group to seek deliverance in the promise of ultimate divine judgment against their perceived oppressors. Subscribing to the apocalyptic belief of the Book of Revelation allows powerless communities to maintain their faith and tolerate living in times of crisis and chaos, since these ordeals are seen as merely the temporary forerunners of an eternal, divine social order.
Elizabeth Rosen argues the apocalyptic myth is more powerful than other paradigms humans have used to make sense of social conditions (like conspiracy theory and chaos theory) because “it encompasses a moral dimension” and “is naturally a vehicle for the analysis and criticism of behavior, whether of the individual, nation, or cosmos” (Rosen xiii). Yet apocalyptic narratives are not simply comforting stories told by persecuted groups. Yes, the version of morality offered by the Book of Revelation assures the faithful their heavenly rewards, but it also condemns sinners, “the other” to the believers, to eternal damnation and rejects any possibility of existence between these two extremes. This black and white, dualistic morality creates a hierarchical value system that limits classification of identities to one of only two potential categories and then perpetually venerates one as the ideal and the other as inferior, if not downright abhorrent.
Throughout the course of history, binary extremes like the one described above and the accompanying value judgments have dominated Western perceptions of race (white vs. minority), gender (male vs. female), sexuality (straight vs. gay), and religion (Christian vs. heretics). The rhetoric of the Book of Revelation creates “a regime of truth that operates within a field of power relations and describes a particular moral behavior” (Quinby, Anti-Apocalypse xv). By asserting that there is only one Truth, and only one legitimate moral hierarchy, Christian apocalypticism has a long history of being used effectively to demonize the other – Romans before Constantine, Jews in the third and fourth centuries, medieval women, Muslims and Jews during the Crusades (Kirsch 108, 130, 164).
One specific example of this type of moral-based dualism can be found in the description of the two female archetypes in the Book of Revelation: Jezebel/the Whore of Babylon, and the Mother of Christ/Bride of Christ. The former is sinful and impure– she fornicates and “repented not” (Revelation 2:21). “God hath remembered her iniquities” and she is punished for her transgressions (Revelation 18:5). On the other hand, the latter is “a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars” (Revelation 12:1). She is innocent and pure, fit to wear “fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints” (Revelation 19:8).
It is in America, however, where church and state are supposedly separate, and where allegedly “all men are created equal,” that the dualism of Revelation has shaped and continues to shape the culture in decidedly undemocratic ways. Examples of apocalyptic demonization of other include religious leaders in both the Union and the Confederacy using apocalyptic propaganda to garner support for their causes, and fundamentalists seeing “union labels on factory goods as ‘the mark of the beast’” (Kirsch 188, 193). Tools of the Antichrist
have been said to include bankers, biofeedback, credit cards, computers, the Council on Foreign Relations, feminism, Freudian psychology, the human-potential movement, Indian gurus, “international Jews,” lesbianism, the Masons, Montessori schools, secular humanism, the Trilateral Commission, Universal Product Codes, and the United Nations – and the list is certainly not comprehensive. (Kirsch 220)
In other words, anything that threatens the moral hierarchy established by the Book of Revelation, or undermines the idea that white Christian males are the elite, is considered evil. Apocalyptic “insistence on absolute morality, theologically justified patriarchy, and pre-ordained history with an (always imminent) End-time” inspired twentieth-century Christian fundamentalists to organize politically in opposition to abortion, gay rights, pornography, feminism, and a peaceful two-state solution in Israel (Quinby, Millennial Seduction 16; Kirsch 232, 239).
As L. Quinby and J. Kirsch have demonstrated, belief in the apocalyptic regime of truth is pervasive throughout American society. Even non-fundamentalists “hold notions of divine origin and metaphysical evil,” which in turn negatively influence a variety of ostensibly secular matters in the United States, including gender equality, race relations, the entertainment industry, news media, and so forth (Quinby, Anti-Apocalypse xii; Quinby, Millennial Seduction 8).
By stepping outside the power regime imposed by the traditional apocalyptic myth, it is possible to look beyond the Book of Revelation’s insistence on absolute truth and moral dualism and seek out other, perhaps less oppressive, certainly less binarily rigid, moral systems. Elizabeth Rosen writes about the postmodernist search for such alternatives, which has led postmodernists to “challenge, explode, or undermine the belief system or assumptions underlying this particular grand narrative [the traditional apocalyptic myth]” (Rosen xx). Rosen is particularly interested, however, in postmodern authors and filmmakers who undertake this subversive social critique from within the structure of the apocalyptic narrative itself.
Rosen’s definition of postmodern apocalypse stories assumes the traditional apocalyptic myth can be separated from the traditional apocalyptic narrative (Rosen xxi). The myth, as discussed above, promotes a dualistic, hierarchical worldview. The narrative, on the other hand, merely requires the use of the five essential plot elements that define the traditional apocalypse of the Book of Revelation. These are divine authority, receiver of a prophesy, the end of the world, Judgment day, and transcendence. If an apocalypse has been constructed in adherence with the five elements listed above, Rosen argues, postmodern authors are free to create their own myth, and use their apocalypse to teach the moral lessons of their choice.
For readers disinclined to accept the assumption that the myth can, in fact, be separated from the narrative, Rosen merely holds up the stories examined in Apocalyptic Transformation as examples of postmodernists’ success in doing so (Rosen xxi). To further her argument by demonstrating the validity of her assumption in works beyond the scope of her analysis, I propose the Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling, can be read as postmodern apocalyptic fiction that retains the traditional apocalyptic narrative structure while subverting the dualistic apocalyptic moral paradigm.
Rosen provides a thorough examination of the ways in which various secular authors adapt the apocalyptic narrative to suit their needs and still retain “the basic three themes of judgment, catastrophe, and renewal, but also the more specific motifs of deity and New Jerusalem” (Rosen xxii). In the next section, my analysis of the Harry Potter series will draw parallels between J.K. Rowling’s adaptations and the ones Rosen provides as evidence for the existence of postmodern apocalyptic literature as a genre. In addition, I will show how Rowling handles humanization of the deity figure, a non-linear conception of time, and the postmodern dilemma of non-judgmental judgment to serve as additional illustrations of the characteristics of postmodern apocalypse stories.
References
Kirsch, Jonathan. A History of the End of the World: How the Most Controversial Book in the Bible Changed the Course of Western Civilization. New York, NY: HarperOne – Harper, 2006. Print.
Quinby, Lee. Anti-Apocalypse: exercises in genealogical criticism. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1994. Print.
—. Millennial Seduction: A Skeptic Confronts Apocalyptic Culture. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1999. Print.
Rosen, Elizabeth. Apocalyptic Transformation: Apocalypse and the Postmodern Imagination. Lanham, MD: Lexington – Rowman & Littlefield, 2008. Print.
