Nomenclatura: aproximaciones a los estudios hispánicos

Apocalypse and the End Times/Apocalipsis y el fin del mundo

Introduction

According to some readings of the Mayan calendar, the world as we know it will end this year. Considering the current climate of economic crisis, ecological disaster, and renewed social divisions, the prophecy seems all too accurate and, as Slavoj Žižek implies, it can feel as though we are “living in the end times.” For the second volume of Nomenclatura: aproximaciones a los estudios hispánicos, we asked contributors to examine an array of topics that come to mind when discussing apocalypse in Hispanic cultures and literatures. The result is a collection of essays on novels, films, chronicles, and philosophical meditations where apocalypse appears in the guise of the Iberian conquest of the New World, the Spanish Civil War, the massacre of Haitians in the Dominican Republic, dictatorial regimes in Peru and Cuba, ecotourism in Costa Rica, and neoliberal politics across the Americas. These articles recall that an apocalypse is not simply a catastrophic ending, but also a moment of revelation. Through close textual analysis, historical contextualization, and theoretical reflection, they do their part to unveil the anxieties, fears, and hopes that accompany predictions of apocalypse in the Hispanic world.

Jeffrey Zamostny and Grace Martin