Zombie Culture: Autopsies of the Living Dead

by Shawn McIntosh, Marc Leverette

Overview

Why have zombies resonated so pervasively in the popular imagination and in media, especially films? Why have they proved to be one of the most versatile and popular monster types in the growing video game industry? What makes zombies such widespread symbols of horror and dread, and how have portrayals of zombies in movies changed and evolved to fit contemporary fears, anxieties, and social issues?

Zombies have held a unique place in film and popular culture throughout most of the 20th century. Rare in that this enduring monster type originated in non-European folk culture rather than the Gothic tradition from which monsters like vampires and werewolves have emerged, zombies have in many ways superseded these Gothic monsters in popular entertainment and the public imagination and have increasingly been used in discussions ranging from the philosophy of mind to computer lingo to the business press.

Zombie Culture brings together scholars from a variety of fields, including cinema studies, popular culture, and video game studies, who have examined the living dead through a variety of lenses. By looking at how portrayals of zombies have evolved from their folkloric roots and entered popular culture, readers will gain deeper insights into what zombies mean in terms of the public psyche, how they represent societal fears, and how their evolving portrayals continue to reflect underlying beliefs of The Other, contagion, and death.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810860438
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	02/15/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.13(w) x 9.11(h) x 0.73(d)

About the Author

Shawn McIntosh is lecturer in the Strategic Communications Program and Columbia University's School of Continuing Education.

Marc Leverette is assistant professor of media studies in the Department of Speech Communications at Colorado State University.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Giving the Living Dead Their Due   Marc Leverette   Shawn McIntosh     vii
The Evolution of the Zombie: The Monster That Keeps Coming Back   Shawn McIntosh     1
The Folklore of the Zombie Film   Mikel J. Koven     19
Zombie Splatter Comedy from Dawn to Shaun: Cannibal Carnivalesque   Linda Badley     35
Vita, Amore, e Morte-and Lots of Gore: The Italian Zombie Film   Brad O'Brien     55
The Space of Apocalypse in Zombie Cinema   David Pagano     71
Zombies without Organs: Gender, Flesh, and Fissure   Patricia MacCormack     87
Cannibalizing Gender and Genre: A Feminist Re-Vision of George Romero's Zombie Films   Natasha Patterson     103
Hybridity and Post-Human Anxiety in 28 Days Later   Martin Rogers     119
Can't Sleep When You're Dead: Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll, and the Undead in Psychobilly   Annelise Sklar     135
Zombies in Gamespace: Form, Context, and Meaning in Zombie-Based Video Games   Tanya Krzywinska     153
"Now I'm Feeling Zombified": Playing the Zombie Online   Ron Scott     169
The Funk of Forty Thousand Years; or, How the (Un)Dead Get Their Groove On   Marc Leverette     185
Filmography     213
Bibliography     219
Index     233
About the Contributors     239

Editorial Reviews

While Zombie Culture covers a specialty topic for horror and cinema libraries, such collections will find its discussions wide-ranging and important.

Midwest Book Review

While Zombie Culture covers a specialty topic for horror and cinema libraries, such collections will find its discussions wide-ranging and important.--Midwest Book Review

From the Publisher

While Zombie Culture covers a specialty topic for horror and cinema libraries, such collections will find its discussions wide-ranging and important.

The Midwest Book Review