"If it's not love, then it's the bomb that will bring us together": queer affect and archives in apocalyptic cinema

This thesis explores the queer affective relationship to the archives, particularly as it emerges in apocalyptic cinema, arguing that a study of the archive aligns with a study of queer cinematic apocalypses due to similar thematic concerns such as temporality, posterity, preservation, and memory. Applying a queer framework to the apocalypse is particularly valuable, as queer communities have a profound and tragic relationship with widespread death and grief. Meanwhile, archives also present a tense arena for queer folk, as their stories have been historically absent from heteronormative institutions in power. Using the films V for Vendetta (2005, dir. James McTeigue) and Superstarlet A.D.(2000, dir. Mike McCarthy), this research examines two varying approaches to the queer archive: community archive practices as a form of liberatory memory-keeping, and a resistance to or disillusionment with the archive's potential for restorative queer history, respectively. This thesis argues that apocalyptic films such as these provide excellent models of the archive and that bridging archival practices, or the lack thereof due to institutional neglect, with film analysis of apocalyptic queer romance and remembrance, allows for richer depictions of queer affect and mortality.