Abstract: As one of the most renowned metropolises and economic centers in the world, New York has inspired countless writers throughout literary history and has frequently served as a prototype for urban imagination in the construction of post-apocalyptic worlds in science fiction. Adopting a literary-economic interdisciplinary perspective, this study employs development ethics as a theoretical framework to examine the spatial narratives and economic storytelling across five American post-apocalyptic novels: Cities in Flight, The Blister, Terminal World, Zone One, and New York 2140. It explores the processes of agglomeration, transfer, and reconstruction of developmental factors as portrayed in the“rebuilding of New York.”When urban space, macroeconomics, financial capital, and individual residents are situated within a post-apocalyptic context, the developmental expectations and ethical dilemmas faced by various subjects reflect American science fiction’s
relentless critique of unsustainable development models as well as its sharp satire of the inescapable historical cycles of capitalism.

Key words: New York, post-apocalyptic narratives, development ethics, science fiction, literary-economic studies