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Strong, Jeremy R. "Transformative Technology and Posthuman Futurity: The Psychosocial Cartographies of Zombie Narratives." Imagining the End. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Apocalypse. Eds. Thomas E. Bishop and Jeremy R. Strong. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Pr. 2015. 209–36. 
Added by: joachim (19/03/2022, 12:28)   
Resource type: Book Chapter
Language: en: English
BibTeX citation key: Strong2015
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Categories: General
Keywords: "The Walking Dead", Adaptation, Adlard. Charlie, Horror, Kirkman. Robert, Kristeva. Julia, Sexuality, TV, USA
Creators: Bishop, Strong
Publisher: Inter-Disciplinary Pr. (Oxford)
Collection: Imagining the End. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Apocalypse
Views: 32/612
Attachments   URLs   https://www.academ ... _Zombie_Narratives
Abstract
Zombies have exploded their fictional boundaries in what is essentially a return to their supposed beginning in social reality. These horror icons have changed through their various manifestations in film, fiction and media, however, becoming more than just metaphor for capitalism or social conservatism. Although clear connections exist between the collective symbolism of zombies and movements such as the Occupy protests or on the other hand between zombie annihilation fantasies and colonial history, no single metaphorical interpretation seems able to contain the zombie phenomenon. They have become a powerful social technology capable of creating and dismantling meaning. This ability to simultaneously construct and destroy make zombies a powerful tool in deciphering individual transformations in post-apocalyptic fictional worlds and also a key influence in forging links between those transformations and real social change. In this chapter I argue that zombies are the same kind of ‘meaning machines’ J. Jack Halberstam discussed when she attempted to revise the definition of Gothic horror in her book Skin Shows. Via Kristevian abjection, I also explain why it is important that the Romero zombie has become the dominant cultural manifestation of this particular monster. Ultimately I examine the role the technology of the zombie plays in physically re-mapping human bodies in the post-apocalypse and do this through a sustained analysis of the AMC series The Walking Dead. I find these cartographies often transgress the boundaries of the fictional worlds they manifest in and establish themselves directly in our own social reality; this is best revealed by a sustained consideration of Afro-Orientalism as political alliance between the characters in the same television series. Finally, in attempting to demonstrate the function of zombies in these processes, I discuss unexpected but potentially important connections to the field of critical posthumanism – ending on the strange subject of zombie sexuality.
  
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