Thinking Dead
What the Zombie Apocalypse Means
1st Edition
Published on 26. September 2013
268 pages
978-0-7391-8383-0 (ISBN)
Description
Zombies are everywhere these days. We are consuming zombies as much as they are said to be consuming us in mediated apocalyptic scenarios on popular television shows, video game franchises and movies. The "zombie industry" generates billions a year through media texts and other cultural manifestations (zombie races and zombie-themed parks, to name a few). Zombies, like vampires, werewolves, witches and wizards, have become both big dollars for cultural producers and the subject of audience fascination and fetishization. With popular television shows such as AMC's The Walking Dead (based on the popular graphic novel) and movie franchises such as the ones pioneered by George Romero, global fascination with zombies does not show signs of diminishing.
In The Thinking Dead: What the Zombie Apocalypse Means, edited by Murali Balaji, scholars ask why our culture has becomes so fascinated by the zombie apocalypse. Essays address this question from a range of theoretical perspectives that tie our consumption of zombies to larger narratives of race, gender, sexuality, politics, economics and the end of the world. Thinking Dead brings together an array of media and cultural studies scholars whose contributions to understanding our obsession with zombies will far outlast the current trends of zombie popularity.
In The Thinking Dead: What the Zombie Apocalypse Means, edited by Murali Balaji, scholars ask why our culture has becomes so fascinated by the zombie apocalypse. Essays address this question from a range of theoretical perspectives that tie our consumption of zombies to larger narratives of race, gender, sexuality, politics, economics and the end of the world. Thinking Dead brings together an array of media and cultural studies scholars whose contributions to understanding our obsession with zombies will far outlast the current trends of zombie popularity.
More details
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
1 BW Illustration
ISBN-13
978-0-7391-8383-0 (9780739183830)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
09/2013
Lexington Books
€128.50
Article exhausted; check different version
Person
Murali Balaji is assistant professor of media studies and production at Temple University.
Content
Table of Contents
Introduction - Thinking Dead: Our obsession with the Undead and Its Implications
Murali Balaji, Ph.D
Part I: Zombies as the Other and Ourselves
Chapter 1: Perfect Strangers: The Zombie Imaginary and the Logic of Representation
Gordon Coonfield, Ph.D
Chapter 2: The Social Dead: How Our Zombie Baggage Threatens to Drag Us into the Crypts of Our Past
Angela Cirucci
Chapter 3: "Fight the Dead, Fear The Living": Zombie Apocalypse or Libertarian Paradise?
Jennifer M. Proffitt, Ph.D
Rich Templin, Ph.D
Chapter 4: Simulating Zombies in Popular Culture and Media
Patrick Hamilton, Ph.D
Part II: The Zombie Apocalypse and Social, Technological and Psychological Space
Chapter 5: Return to Darkness: Representations of Africa in Resident Evil 5
Hanli Geyser
Chapter 6: Same as it ever was: Savior Narratives and the Logics of Survival in The Walking Dead
Martina Baldwin
Mark McCarthy
Chapter 7: The Zombie Monster's Evolution to Empty Undead Signifier
Ryan Lizardi, Ph.D
Chapter 8: Gothic Monster and Chinese Cultural Identity: Analysis of The Note of Ghoul
Meijiadai Bai
Chapter 9: Zombies and the Modern American Family: Surviving the Destruction of Traditional Society in Zombieland
Cassie Ozog
Chapter 10: Leave it all Behind: The post-Apocalyptical Renunciation of Technology in the Walking Dead
Alicia Kozma
Chapter 11: Space Junk and the Second Event: The Cosmic Meaning of the Zombie Apocalypse
Barry Vacker, Ph.D
Part III: Eating the Undead: Consumption and Cultural Industries
Chapter 12: The Necropolitics of the Apocalypse: Queer Zombies in the Cinema of Bruce LaBruce
Arnau Roig
Chapter 13: XXXombies: Economies of Desire and Disgust
Steve Jones, Ph.D
Chapter 14: Teen Movies and Summit Entertainment's Construction of Warm Bodies
Cate Buckley
Chapter 15: Eating the Dead: AMC's use of Synergy to Cultivate Zombie Consumption
Murali Balaji, Ph.D
Introduction - Thinking Dead: Our obsession with the Undead and Its Implications
Murali Balaji, Ph.D
Part I: Zombies as the Other and Ourselves
Chapter 1: Perfect Strangers: The Zombie Imaginary and the Logic of Representation
Gordon Coonfield, Ph.D
Chapter 2: The Social Dead: How Our Zombie Baggage Threatens to Drag Us into the Crypts of Our Past
Angela Cirucci
Chapter 3: "Fight the Dead, Fear The Living": Zombie Apocalypse or Libertarian Paradise?
Jennifer M. Proffitt, Ph.D
Rich Templin, Ph.D
Chapter 4: Simulating Zombies in Popular Culture and Media
Patrick Hamilton, Ph.D
Part II: The Zombie Apocalypse and Social, Technological and Psychological Space
Chapter 5: Return to Darkness: Representations of Africa in Resident Evil 5
Hanli Geyser
Chapter 6: Same as it ever was: Savior Narratives and the Logics of Survival in The Walking Dead
Martina Baldwin
Mark McCarthy
Chapter 7: The Zombie Monster's Evolution to Empty Undead Signifier
Ryan Lizardi, Ph.D
Chapter 8: Gothic Monster and Chinese Cultural Identity: Analysis of The Note of Ghoul
Meijiadai Bai
Chapter 9: Zombies and the Modern American Family: Surviving the Destruction of Traditional Society in Zombieland
Cassie Ozog
Chapter 10: Leave it all Behind: The post-Apocalyptical Renunciation of Technology in the Walking Dead
Alicia Kozma
Chapter 11: Space Junk and the Second Event: The Cosmic Meaning of the Zombie Apocalypse
Barry Vacker, Ph.D
Part III: Eating the Undead: Consumption and Cultural Industries
Chapter 12: The Necropolitics of the Apocalypse: Queer Zombies in the Cinema of Bruce LaBruce
Arnau Roig
Chapter 13: XXXombies: Economies of Desire and Disgust
Steve Jones, Ph.D
Chapter 14: Teen Movies and Summit Entertainment's Construction of Warm Bodies
Cate Buckley
Chapter 15: Eating the Dead: AMC's use of Synergy to Cultivate Zombie Consumption
Murali Balaji, Ph.D
