The Festival of New

The zombie holds a unique place in the history of horror movies. This course explores the history, theory, and politics of the zombie from its origins in the folklore of the Caribbean to the memes and metaphors of the digital present, with the primary focus being on the evolution of the zombie movie over the course of the 20th century. The zombie illustrates racial conflicts, sexual anxieties, and theories of transgression. Scary, gross, and sometimes very funny, zombies manage to infect multiple genres (horror, romance, western, comedy) just as they shamble across national boundaries, while addressing modern societal concerns with conformity, crowds, colonialism, contagion, biotechnology, and terrorism through the mirror of popular media and culture, illustrating the global implications of these local politics. While the figure of the zombie emerged from the ethnography and folklore of the Caribbean and the American Deep South, it quickly gained traction on the silver screen, where it has held a prominent place ever since. However, the zombie has not remained a purely cinematic monster and has spread to television, video games, and other digital media as well, and in each case has served as a thought-provoking example of the cultural proclivities and anxieties of the era. This course will also address issues in race, labor, and value in which the zombie serves as a particularly good example of certain issues, dangers, and anxieties surrounding ethnicity and history, labor and economics, and popular culture.