Zombies: History, Culture, and Fear in the Americas

Catalog description

Zombie films. Zombie marches. Zombie economics, zombie house flips and the zombie virus. Representations of the zombie have mushroomed in an American and international context over the last quarter century pushing us to ponder the health of the laboring body, political resistance, consumption and the politics of disaster. However, the figure of the zombie has a much a longer history and meaning in the West that originates among Haiti"s descendants during the height of 18th century racial slavery. Why does the zombie hold such cultural currency in today"s global imagination? What are the characteristics of zombies and what does it reveal about the current socio-historical moment and its anxieties under capitalism, climate change and racial inequities? From explorations in Haiti"s colonial history and religion to the proliferation of zombie films during the U.S. military and financial occupation (1915-1940s), this course examines American cinema, fiction, poetry, history and visual art and its depiction of the undead in order to unpack key issues that continue to haunt contemporary society and reproduce injustices.