An Ecocritical Perspective of Stephen King’s The Stand (1978): Anthropocentrism, Post-Anthropocentrism and Theocentrism | ||
| مجلة کلية الاداب.جامعة المنصورة | ||
| Volume 77, Issue 77, August 2025 | ||
| Document Type: العلوم الانسانیة الأدبیة واللغات | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/artman.2025.354770.2945 | ||
| Author | ||
| وسن علي Øسن الدليمي* | ||
| كلية الاداب/ جامعة المنصورة / العراق | ||
| Abstract | ||
| This paper deals with the concept of the apocalypse as portrayed in such a post-apocalyptic novel as Stephen King's The Stand. It highlights different definitions of the apocalypse, as addressed by both the apocalyptic and the post-apocalyptic novel as a contemporary prosperous genre. It focuses especially on the Biblical concept of the apocalypse that is related to notions like redemption, salvation and paradise. This view is thus associated with Christian hope of mortality, which mitigates any subsequent horrors of the apocalypse by providing a hope for immortality in Heaven. The study adopts a theoretical approach that leans heavily on some relevant ideas of ecocriticism. This tends to link apocalypticism not only to the antagonistic man-nature relationship, but also to the ever-collapsing environment and the need to bridge the gulf between human beings, nonhuman species and the environment in general. By doing so, the paper builds its critical view on Deep Ecology, anthropocentricism and posthumanism. It critically highlights both anthropocentricism and posthumanism as responsible for the antagonistic relationship between man and the environment. They are also depicted as inevitably leading to a destructive apocalypse that terminates the world. The analysis significantly presents theocentrism as a different attitude that carries hope for immortality and presents a different image of apocalypticism that is stripped off its terrible nature. This attitude dismantles anthropocentricism’s hierarchy that puts man as superior to all other creatures, regarding God instead as the actual manipulator of life. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Apocalypse; The Stand; Deep Ecology; Anthropocentricism; Posthumanism and Theocentrism | ||
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