Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
Synopsis This subject explores, in a variety of historical contexts from the first to the twentieth centuries, the fascination of the belief - recently manifested at Waco (1993), Tokyo (1995), Oklahoma City (1995) - that the end of the world is at hand and that in its wake will appear the inexhaustively fertile world of the Golden Age. The subject will investigate the origins of such millenarian thought in the first-century Eastern Mediterranean world and the Apocalypse of John, before surveying how and why the images therein evoked caught not only the medieval imaginatioin (as seen in both literature and art) but also moderns like Karl Marx. Special attention will be given to charting the complex relation of apocalyptic traditions to religious, social and political change, and therefore to dissent and revolution. The subject will conclude with contemporary concepts of ecology, time and change and the promise of the modern multipolis.
Assessment Historiographical assignment (1500 words): 25% + Research paper (3000 words): 45% + Examination (1.5 hours): 30% (Optional 1500 word paper in place of examination)