Post-Apocalypse: Culture and Nature in Gundega Repše’s and Cormac McCarthy’s Works

Abstract

The paper focuses on nature and culture in a post-apocalyptic world, which becomes devoid of life and culture and poses a question of further existence of nature in the world. The works of the Latvian writer Gundega Repše and the American writer Cormac McCarthy are analysed in a comparative way to see how nature, set on a bleak stage with the only decoration of empty houses, can give a promise of further existence. Do the two works make it possible to answer the question of existence at its turning point: ‘How many people does this world need to be a fully natural and cultural place to inhabit?’ The paper tackles this issue from the perspective of ecofeminism and ecocriticism.