The Future as Catastrophe

The Future as Catastrophe offers a novel critique of the fascination with disaster. Analyzing the catastrophic imaginary from its historical roots to the contemporary popularity of disaster fiction and end-of-the-world blockbusters, Eva Horn argues that apocalypse always haunts the modern idea of a future that can be anticipated and planned.

HornEva: Eva Horn (PhD, Political Theory, University of Konstanz; habilitation, Social and Cultural Sciences, Europa-Universitat Viadrina) is Professor of German and Cultural Studies at the University of Vienna and Distinguished Visiting Max Kade Professor in the Department of Germanic Languages at Columbia. She is the author of (in English translation) The Secret War: Treason, Espionage, and Modern Fiction (Northwestern, 2013) and (in German) Trauer schreiben: Die Toten im Text der Goethezeit (Fink, 1998).Eva Horn is professor of German literature and cultural history at the University of Vienna. She is the author of The Secret War: Treason, Espionage, and Modern Fiction (2013).