Verso la fine del tempo. Catastrofe e trascendenza in John Updike.

Abstract

The contribution tries to decode a series of questions crowded together in Towards the End of Time (1997), perhaps the most enigmatic novel by the American writer John Updike. It is a pretentious, provocative, catastrophic title, capable of disorientating the reader but at the same time ensnaring him. What annihilation are we referring to? The critical analysis that takes shape in this contribution tries to answer this disturbing question. The solutions taken into consideration oscillate between planetary hypotheses, announced on several occasions by drastic cosmic warnings; but also among those concerning the notion of linear time and personal time on earth, in this case of Ben Turnbull, protagonist and narrator of the work. It is precisely this last hypothesis that takes over within the narrative which closely follows, step by step, the disintegration of the Self, hesitating between definitive apocalypses and hopes of transcendence.