Seeing the Apocalypse: Essays on Bird Box

by Brandon R. Grafius (Contributor), Gregory Stevenson (Editor), Rachel Elizabeth Barraclough (Contributor)

Seeing the Essays on Bird Box is the first volume to explore Josh Malerman’s best-selling novel and its recent film adaptation, which broke streaming records and became a cultural touchstone, emerging as a staple in the genre of contemporary horror. The essays in this collection offer an interdisciplinary approach to Bird Box, one that draws on the fields of gender studies, cultural studies, and disability studies. The contributors examine how Bird Box provokes questions about a range of issues including the human body and its existence in the world, the ethical obligations that shape community, and the anxieties arising from technological development. Taken together, the essays of this volume show how a critical examination of Bird Box offers readers a guide for thinking through human experience in our own troubled, apocalyptic times.

292 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 22, 2021

About the author

Brandon R. Grafius is associate professor of biblical studies and academic dean at Ecumenical Theological Seminary. He has published widely on the intersection between horror and religion, including academic monographs and popular magazines such as Sojourners and The Christian Century. He is currently working on an academic monograph for Oxford University Press, and co-editing The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters.