Resumen del libro
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we have not experienced a moment of calm. A spectre haunts the world: the spectre of permanent crisis. Indeed, the forthcoming social, economic, and political conditions will favour the zombies, ensuring their continued presence in our cultural agenda. Throughout several literary, cinematographic, serial fiction and video game cultural productions, this character has served as a symbolic representation of the individual at different times in history. Whether by harshly denouncing the alienated or passive attitudes that human beings tend to adopt in certain situations, urging them to rebel against the system, or by portraying the zombie as a victim of human racial, gender, social, or class prejudices, and of their desire to exert power over their own and other species.
This book covers a wide range of topics concerning its universe, offering a complete study divided into six significant areas:
1. Power, Labour, and Economy
2. Ethics, Religion, and Society
3. Flesh, Bodies, and Gender
4. Politics and Ideology
5. Geographical Adaptations
6. Social and Cultural Manifestations
INTRODUCTION Alfonso M. Rodríguez de Austria and Cristina Algaba
PART I POWER, LABOUR & ECONOMY
CHAPTER 1. FEAR THE FETISH: MEDIA, MONSTER CAPITALISM AND THE META-MYTH OF ZOMBIES Marco Briziarelli and Christina Blankenship
CHAPTER 2. ZOMBIE POWER. BETWEEN SLAVERY AND REBELLION Víctor Hernández-Santaolalla
CHAPTER 3. iZOMBIE. ZOMBIES AS COMEDIC VICTIMS OF THE NEOLIBERAL SYSTEM Irene Raya Bravo and Pedro J. García
CHAPTER 4. CAPITALIZM: AN IDEOLOGICAL ODYSSEY Nikola Mlađenović
PART II ETHICS, RELIGION & SOCIETY
CHAPTER 5. CELLULOID ZOMBIES AS A REFLECTION OF CONCERNS OVER SCIENCE IN FIFTIES AMERICA Marta Piñol-Lloret
CHAPTER 6. THE PROCESS OF PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE FIGURE OF THE ZOMBIE-KILLER HERO THROUGH ASIAN CINEMA. THE CASE OF I AM A HERO Jesús Conde-Jiménez and Salvador Reyes-de Cózar
CHAPTER 7. REUNITED AGAINST MASSES: INDIVIDUALITY AND COLLECTIVITY IN THE WALKING DEAD Asli Favaro
CHAPTER 8. THE GOD OF THE APOCALYPSE: NARRATIVES ABOUT THE DIVINITY IN THE WALKING DEAD Eduar Barbosa Caro and Johanna Ramírez Suavita
CHAPTER 9. THE LIVING DEAD AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH VIOLENCE IN SPANISH CINEMA Sara González-Fernández
CHAPTER 10. “ALIVE OR DEAD, THE TRUTH WON’T REST”: POLITICS AND POETICS OF MEDIA REVOLUTIONS UNDER THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE IN MIRA GRANT’S NEWFLESH TRILOGY Caroline Duvezin-Caubet
PART III FLESH, BODIES & GENDER
CHAPTER 11. BODIES BEYOND THE GRAVE: GENDER, BODY AND DISGUST IN FEMALE ZOMBIES Itxaso del Castillo
CHAPTER 12. THE HORRORS OF THE FLESH. THE ZOMBIFIED BODY AS EFFECTIVE ARCHIVE IN IN THE FLESH (2013–2014) Nadine Dannenberg
CHAPTER 13. ANIMALS VS. ZOMBIES: REPRESENTATIONS AND ROLES OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM IN ZOMBIE FICTION Nicholas Dion
CHAPTER 14. AGENCY OF THE FLESH: HUMANNESS, OBSCENITY, AND DEATH IN BRUCE LABRUCE’S OTTO; OR, UP WITH DEAD PEOPLE Ari P. Büyüktaş
PART IV POLITICS & IDEOLOGY
CHAPTER 15. THE WALKING DEAD, THE ALT-RIGHT AND THE RISE OF LIBERTARIAN FANTASIES (AND DONALD TRUMP’S POLITICS) Alfonso M. Rodríguez de Austria
CHAPTER 16. THE MONSTER OF EMPATHY Georg Malcovati
CHAPTER 17. THE LAST OF US: AMERICAN INDIVIDUALISM IN SURVIVAL HORROR José María Calvo Moreno and Olmo Castrillo Cano
CHAPTER 18. “YOU HAVE TO DECIDE WHAT SIDE YOU’RE ON”: EXAMINING iZOMBIE’S SEASONS THREE AND FOUR AS CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL COMMENTARY Erin Giannini
PART V GEOGRAPHICAL ADAPTATIONS
CHAPTER 19. CAN A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE TRANSFORM JAPANESE SOCIETY? CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ZOMBIE’S CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE IN JAPANESE CINEMA Francisco Javier López Rodríguez
CHAPTER 20. JUAN OF THE DEAD: THE SCENARIO AND SOCIO-POLITICAL CRITICISM IN ZOMBIE MOVIES Rafael Menéndez Fernández and Begoña Gutiérrez San Miguel
CHAPTER 21. A SOCIO-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE REPRESENTATION OF ZOMBIES IN NOLLYWOOD: A STUDY OF C. J. OBASI’S OJUJU AND BANJI OYEMAJA’S OUTBREAK 2020 Floribert Endong
CHAPTER 22. “WHEN THE DEAD COME OUT OF THEIR GRAVES, THE LIVING WILL BE THEIR BLOOD…”. ZOMBIE ITALIAN STYLE Ludovico Longhi
PART VI SOCIAL & CULTURAL MANIFESTATIONS
CHAPTER 23. THE ZOMBIE: A METAPHOR TO LIVE (AND DIE) BY? A FOLK MODEL OF FAMILIAR MONSTERS Lina Rahm and Jörgen Behrendt
CHAPTER 24. TECH-COMM VERSUS ZOMBIES: A POST-APOCALYPTIC PEDAGOGY Samuel J. Fuller
CHAPTER 25. ZOMBIE RECONSTRUCTION IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY: THE ZOMBIE MERMAID Martine Mussies
CHAPTER 26. ZOMBIES AND MUSIC James Wierzbicki
CHAPTER 27. THE MARCH OF THE NEO-BAROQUE ZOMBIE: FROM HUMAN TO HUNGER Aarón Rodríguez Serrano, Teresa Sorolla Romero, and Shaila García Catalán
CHAPTER 28. CONCLUSION. ZOMBIE UNIVERSES: (PRE-)CONFIGURATIONS OF A (POST-)PANDEMIC WORLD Cristina Algaba and Alfonso M. Rodríguez de Austria