Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2002. Vol. 8. Eger Journal of American Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 28)

Studies - Donald E. Morse: The End of the World in American History and Fantasy: The Trumpet of the Last Judgement

the end of time. Were any such similar dates to appear in these novels —and there are still more volumes to come—then the whole series would align itself not with the literature of the fantastic but with the consensus reality of their millennial community of true believers and readers.

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9 But such a departure from the fantastic has its dangers, for that consensus reality would, in turn, have to assimilate the inevitable disappointment "when apocalypse fails, as fortunately it always has [...]" (Bloom 30). Meantime, such novels help illustrate the fluidity of meaning in the very terms "the fantastic" and "reality." Notes A version of this paper was given at the conference "Alternative Approaches to English-Speaking Cultures in the Nineteenth Century" held at the University of Debrecen in 1998. An alternative version will appear in the Journal of the Fantastic (USA). WORKS CITED Anderski, Stanislav, ed. Herbert Spencer: Structure, Function and Evolution. London: Michael Joseph, 1971. Arthur, David T. "Joshua V. Himes and the Cause of Adventism." In Numbers and Butler. 36-58. Bloom, Harold. Omens of Millennium: The Gnosis of Angels, Dreams, and Resurrection. New York: Riverhead Books, 1996. Burkitt, F. Crawford. Jewish and Christian Apocalypse (The Schweich Lectures 1913). London: Oxford U P, 1914. Pollsters estimate that there are about 10 million premillennialists among us, that is, people who expect Jesus to return, in his resurrected body, before he then inaugurates a thousand-year kingdom on earth, over wh^ch he will rule. Yet the premillennialists are only a small fraction of believers; rather more than 100 million American adults expect a Second Coming of Jesus, even if they do not necessarily believe that he will found Kingdom of God in this world" (Bloom 21920). 234