The End of the World as We Know It. For a Postcolonial Investigation of the Meaning(s) of Environmental Catastrophe in Sci-Fi Films

Abstract

This article explores fantasies behind ideas of disaster in terms of a regeneration of human society through or against a catastrophe generated by a non-human entity. I will investigate two products of mass visual culture, Annihilation by Alex Garland (2018), and Arrival by Denis Villeneuve (2016). My analysis will rely on a reading against the grain of Fernando Meirelles’s Blindness (2008), M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening (2008), and Juan Antonio Bayona’s The Impossible (2012), which I have examined in earlier studies (Giuliani, 2016a, 2017b). I will seek to compare and contrast these films, tracing how they developed out of a series of events and texts while also contextualising them in relation to contemporary conceptualisations of crisis, risk, catastrophe and disaster.

Este artigo explora as fantasias subjacentes às ideias de desastre e de regeneração da sociedade humana através de ou contra uma catástrofe gerada por uma entidade não-humana. Irei investigar dois produtos da cultura visual de massas, Annihilation de Alex Garland (2018) e Arrival de Denis Villeneuve. A minha análise baseia-se numa leitura em contracorrente de Blindness de Fernando de Meirelles, The Happening de M. Night Shyamalan’s (2008) e de The Impossible, de Juan Antonio Bayona (2012), que examinei em trabalhos recentes (Giuliani, 2016a, 2017b). Tentarei comparar e pôr em contraste estes filmes, reconstituindo como se desenvolvem a partir de uma série de eventos e textos, ao mesmo tempo que os contextualizarei face a conceções contemporâneas de crise, risco, catástrofe e desastre.