Revisiting the Pandemic: Salvaging Hope and Capturing the Essence of Life in Emily St. John Mandel’s ‘Station Eleven

Abstract

The present paper is mainly concerned with one of the recent incredibly gripping post-apocalyptic fictional narratives geared toward a pandemic outbreak, namely, Emily St. John Mandel's 'Station Eleven', with the aim of demonstrating that ‘the human condition and what makes life meaningful’ are what this novel is made for exploring. For this purpose, the study aims at going beyond exploring 'what life might be like in the grips of a global pandemicand the lengths humans will go in order to survive ' to get to the bottom of Mandel's philosophy, 'Survival is Insufficient', and probe her new imagined future. To better frame the way Mandel establishes her post – apocalyptic setting, the present paper draws on two approaches – Tom Moylan's concept of 'Critical Dystopia' and Evan Calder Williams' theoretical praxis named as 'Salvage punk' to finally reach the conclusion that Mandel's 'Station Eleven' tells more than just an apocalypse and chronicles more than just a pandemic. Perhaps paradoxically, it offers a way of finding comfort, envisioning hope, capturing the essence of life through holding on to the best of what has been lost.