Generation Zombie : Essays on the Living Dead in Modern Culture

by Boluk, Stephanie; Lenz, Wylie

• ISBN13: 9780786461400
• ISBN10: 0786461403
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-06-15
• Publisher: McFarland & Co Inc Pub

Summary

Growing from their early roots in Caribbean voodoo to their popularity today, zombies are epidemic. Their presence is pervasive, whether they are found in video games, street signs, hard drives, or even international politics. These sixteen original essays by an interdisciplinary group of scholars examine how the zombie has evolved over time, its continually evolving manifestations in popular culture, and the unpredictable effects the zombie has had on late modernity. Topics covered include representations of zombies in films, the zombie as environmental critique, its role in mass psychology and how issues of race, class and gender are expressed through zombie narratives. Collectively, the work enhances our understanding of the popularity and purposes of horror in the modern era.

Author Biography

Stephanie Boluk is a postdoctoral fellow in the Media Studies program at Vassar College. Wylie Lenz is a Ph.D. candidate in the English Department at the University of Florida.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Generation Z, the Age of Apocalypse	p. 1
Zombies as Internal Fear or Threat	p. 18
White Zombie and the Creole: William Seabrook's The Magic Island and American Imperialism in Haiti	p. 27
The Origin of the Zombie in American Radio and Film: B-Horror, U.S. Empire, and the Politics of Disavowal	p. 41
The Eco-Zombie: Environmental Critique in Zombie Fiction	p. 54
Lost Bodies/Lost Souls: Night of the Living Dead and Deathdream as Vietnam Narrative	p. 67
Shambling Towards Mount Improbable to Be Born: American Evolutionary Anxiety and the Hopeful Monsters of Matheson's I Am Legend and Romero's DeadFilms	p. 77
Ztopia: Lessons in Post-Vital Politics in George Romero's Zombie Films	p. 90
Soft Murders: Motion Pictures and Living Death in Diary of the Dead	p. 101
Mass Psychology and the Analysis of the Zombie: From Suggestion to Contagion	p. 113
Gray Is the New Black: Race, Class, and Zombies	p. 130
Cyberpunk and the Living Dead	p. 147
The End Begins: John Wyndham's Zombie Cozy	p. 156
Zombies in a ôDeep, Dark Ocean of Historyö: Danny Boyle's Infected and John Wyndham's Triffids as Metaphors of Postwar Britain	p. 165
Dead and Live Life: Zombies, Queers, and Online Sociality	p. 182
The E-Dead: Zombies in the Digital Age	p. 194
A Brain Is a Terrible Thing to Waste: Isolation U. and the Campus Zombie	p. 206
Rhetoric Goes Boom(er): Agency, Networks, and Zombies at Play	p. 219
The National Strategy for Zombie Containment: Myth Meets Activism in Post-9/11 America	p. 231
About the Contributors	p. 249
Index	p. 253
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