Date of Award
Fall 9-5-2025
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Theology
First Advisor
Olivia Stewart Lester
Abstract
With their often other-worldly settings and larger-than-life themes, apocalyptic texts are regularly thought of as “dramatic” texts. These texts have inspired large swaths of popular media considering the end times, but rarely have performance critical projects within biblical studies considered how these texts would have been received in performance in antiquity. To expand thinking around performance and apocalypse, this project examines not only these categories, but also adds in a consideration of gender. This work is concerned with answering the question “is there such a thing as apocalyptic masculinity?” This project uses performance and performativity as a method to read apocalyptic texts to delineate a particular masculinity distinctive to apocalypses. I bring these threads together through three themes: (1) messianic figures in apocalypses, (2) the relationship between the monstrous and the masculine, and (3) the place of pseudepigraphy and what happens when major male historical figures are pulled out of their historical locations to be used in other contexts. This book argues that there is a particular strand of masculinity that is prevalent in apocalypses: one that is fluid and unstable. In talking about fluid apocalyptic masculinity, we can make sense of the shifting and reframing of the masculinity standards that were a part of the culture at-large when the narratives were created.
Recommended Citation
Wines, Megan, "Apocalyptic Masculinity: Messiahs, Monsters, and Men Out of Time" (2025). Dissertations. 4219.
https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/4219
