Since 9/11, the number of zombie narratives consumed worldwide has veritably exploded. They seem to be everywhere—in novels, games, comic books, film, and television. For example, after Hollywood’s White Zombie, released in 1932 and starring Bela Lugosi, and up until 2001 zombie movies were churned out at a rate of about one per year. After 9/11 that number leapt to 22 per year. Why? What is it that compels us to devour this brand of horror with the relish of a zombie slowly pursuing fresh brains?  How can humanities scholarship help us to make sense of this cultural invasion? In this public discussion, three distinguished humanities scholars from the University of Regina confront the zombie invasion.

Michael Trussler, Department of English:  “Philosophical Ethics and the Figure of the Zombie.”

In 2016-10, I taught an Honours/Graduate class on the contemporary figure of the zombie. What I propose for this workshop presentation is to distill the essence of the course by referring to the texts covered, the sorts of discussion that arose, and what observations the class garnered that may illuminate why the zombie is such a prevalent figure in recent popular culture.

Embodying contemporary anxieties of apocalyptic disaster and fear of personal injury, zombies summon fundamental ethical questions. The course examined the zombie in literature, film, the graphic novel, and the TV series The Walking Dead through the lens of bio-ethical theory and philosophers such as Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Arendt and Levinas. In addition, by contrasting late twentieth-century and early twenty-first century representations of the zombie with earlier sites of mourning such as the cemetery, we can gain an appreciation of shifts in “structures of feeling” from fin de siècle Europe to post-World War II America and what might be called post-postmodern Western culture generally.

We might also consider the possibility that a popular TV series such as The Walking Dead can reduce an audience’s engagement with reality. In his essay “Art and Ethics,” Tzvetan Todorov develops (from Jean-Jacques Rousseau) the notion that an audience that attends an edifying performance may become self-absorbed: “Spectators are only too pleased with themselves—they feel no more of an obligation [to others in real life] than the actors to continue doing as much once the show is over. They too are playing a role.” What if observing a zombie plague allows a TV audience to feel as though it has already engaged with apocalyptic disaster and so complacently ignores a real problem such as climate change or the accelerating of disparities between the rich and the poor?

Christina Stojanova, Department of Film:  “Contemporary Scary Tales:  A Post-Jungian Approach to Zombie Cinema.”

This paper will first look at the uniquely non-European historical origins of the cinematic Zombie, and will then focus on its current proliferation and popularity, which very much belong to our contemporary era. And, by following the evolution of its narrative and genre tropes – from the occult to science (fiction); from one or two individuals to a raging horde; from a passive victim to an contagious cannibal, and from the containable isolated mania to a global apocalypse – the paper will analyze the phenomenon in light of current post-Jungian discussions on its nature. Thus, the socio-psychological meaning of the Zombies/ Survivors dynamics could be seen not only as a challenge of the traditional dynamics between rational and irrational, good and evil, progress and regression, but also of such sanctified scientific tropes as the positive value of adaptive change.

Mark Anderson, Department of History, Luther College: “The Western is Dead, Long Live the Undead!”

In the wake of 9/11, zombie films and TV shows have replaced the western as the sacred vessel most commonly associated with America’s creation story, its frontier myth. This constitutes a formidable shift because the western served as the dominant fiction genre for a century and did so on-screen until the 1970s. Further, it has undergone a minor renaissance in the last 25 years, since the release of Dances with Wolves.  Yet it has now met its equal: the zombie tale.

Zombie popularity surged after 9/11, and a lot of ink has been spilled trying to explain why. For a time, it seemed as if the apocalypse really was nigh. But it was not, of course. Still, the damage was done. And American popular culture has since endeavoured to engage in a kind of reclamation project. Enter the undead, who stand in for the horror and the enemy Other, scholars have argued. But more than that, Zombie stories, because they are by their very nature plotted around contamination, destruction, and rebirth, provide an ideal narrative shell upon which the reconstruction might be effected. These are also the basic elements of the frontier myth—the death of the corrupted soul, trial by fire, and rebirth in violence, the subject of my talk.

Members of the public, students and faculty are invited to hear these presentations and to participate in the public discussion.  The event will take place in the Education Auditorium EA 106.1 on Friday, 31 March, from 3:00 – 4:30 p.m.  Refreshments will be served