Introduction

Summary

Of all the books of the Bible, few have had the enduring influence on western culture—and particularly on the arts—as has the Book of Revelation. From at least the fourth century CE down to the present day, its beguiling narrative and striking visual imagery have inspired a variety of artists and musicians (and more recently, film makers) from Albrecht Dürer, Hieronymus Bosch and William Blake through to Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky and Jake and Dinos Chapman. It has also, albeit in a secularized form, found expression in innumerable horror and science fiction comic books, as well as in an equally innumerable number of Hollywood movies dealing with planetary disaster and “the end of the world”. Indeed, for reasons that are clear from even a cursory reading of the text (particularly in its King James Version), the Book of Revelation, perhaps more so than any other book, Biblical or otherwise, cries out for such artistic representation.

The nine essays in this volume focus on the influence of the Book of Revelation and the apocalypse more generally on various sites within popular culture, tracing the way in which its themes, language and motifs are manifested across film and music and in literary and online texts. In his essay, Gary Baines examines the way in which apocalyptic themes are found in the work of Bob Dylan. Dylan's repertoire, Baines argues, is rich in symbolism and reflects not only his own concerns as an artist but also those of his audience.