American Zombie Gothic: The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of the Walking Dead in Popular Culture

Bishop, Kyle William

ISBN 10: 0786448067 / ISBN 13: 9780786448067

Published by McFarland & Co Inc, 2010

About this Item

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Seller Inventory # B9780786448067

Bibliographic Details

• Title: American Zombie Gothic: The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of the Walking Dead in Popular Culture
• Publisher: McFarland & Co Inc
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786448067
• ISBN 13: 9780786448067
• Binding: Paperback / softback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 450 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Zombie stories are peculiarly American, as the creature was born in the New World and functions as a reminder of the atrocities of colonialism and slavery. The voodoo-based zombie films of the 1930s and '40s reveal deep-seated racist attitudes and imperialist paranoia, but the contagious, cannibalistic zombie horde invasion narrative established by George A. Romero has even greater singularity. This book provides a cultural and critical analysis of the cinematic zombie tradition, starting with its origins in Haitian folklore and tracking the development of the subgenre into the twenty-first century. Closely examining such influential works as Victor Halperin's White Zombie, Jacques Tourneur's I Walked with a Zombie, Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2, Dan O'Bannon's The Return of the Living Dead, Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, and, of course, Romero's entire "Dead" series, it establishes the place of zombies in the Gothic tradition.

About the Author

Kyle William Bishop is a professor of English and film studies and serves as the English department chair at Southern Utah University in Cedar City, Utah. He has presented and published on a number of zombie-related texts and has authored two monographs with McFarland.