On the Apocalyptic Columbine

• Autores: Joshua Gunn, David Beard
• Localización: Southern communication journal, ISSN 1041-794X, Vol. 68, nº 3 (PRIMAVERA), 2002, págs. 198-216
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • In this essay we argue that mass media coverage of crises has begun to adopt an emerging social form or subgenre of theological discourse that we term the apocalyptic sublime. The apocalyptic sublime is characterized by the forwarding of an immanent temporality without promise of relief and by the promotion of an unstable subjectivity (in this case, a disoriented spectator) that is fruitfully described as an experience of sublimity. Our exemplar is the coverage of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, which hs yet to fall from public view. The essay proceeds by first describing the apocalyptic sublime in relationship to technologies of representation and the massacre are analyzed. We conclude by arguing that mass media versions of the apocalyptic sublime are ideally suited to the logics of late or millennial capitalism