ENGL 459 is devoted to the critical study of disaster fiction — both popular and high-brow novels that that imagine “what if” disaster strikes. And what you are reading now is the first entry on the class blog for ENGL 459. If you are a student in ENGL 459, you can register for the blog, something you’ll need to do before the first week of classes is over.
Even if you don’t want to register yet, you can still browse this site, which will play an essential role in our course this semester. Of particular interest to students in ENGL 459 will be the course guidelines and the day-to-day class calendar.
And finally, a note about the evocative header image of the class blog, showing a decapitated Statue of Liberty, with New York City consumed in flames in the background. This image is cropped from the larger, magnificent 1918 watercolor “Lest liberty perish from the face of the earth – buy bonds,” by Joseph Pennell. As its title suggests, the painting’s stark portrayal of a besieged America was intended to spur demand for WWI war bonds — even though American soil was never threatened during the war. This was not the first and certainly not the last time that apocalyptic rhetoric and imagery was used for political purposes.
Pennell’s original painting is in the public domain and housed at the Library of Congress. Here is the full version (click the image for a larger layout):
