The Last Night and Silent Running: Two Post-War Dystopias

Dystopian narratives became more prominent in post-War literature, film, and popular culture. This lecture explores how author Norman Mailer’s early 60s screen treatment, The Last Night, exemplifies ongoing concerns with atomic technology while director Douglas Trumbull’s 1972 science fiction film, Silent Running, amplifies those concerns with social and environmental themes. Michael L. Shuman is a Senior Instructor in the Department of English at University of South Florida and deputy editor of The Mailer Review.