Network Apocalypse, Trauma and Globalisation

One of the most distinctive features of 21st-century fictions of apocalyptic speculation is their preoccupation with a perceived crisis of global capitalism, a trend that has been emerging gradually during the last twenty years that have witnessed the production of a series of 'narratives of interconnectedness' in fiction, film and television. These fictions are discussed in this paper in relation to theorisations that emphasise the importance of networking, interconnectedness and 'connexity' for globalisation. More specifically, the paper will address a dialectic between fictions of apocalypse that have relied on the paradigm of the global network for the articulation of contemporary anxieties and theoretical discussions that have relied on a terminology of disaster, crisis and trauma in order to theorise globalisation