Science fiction and horror television shows predict how the world might be different if zombies were real, or if artificial intelligence could develop consciousness. Pop culture critics reveal that these not-quite humans are often proxies for race, and the post-apocalyptic landscapes set the stage for reimagining social and political institutions.
This book advances horror scholarship by placing those stories within a long tradition of mythologizing U.S. history. It demonstrates how Disney’s Zombies reenacts the civil rights movement, how The Walking Dead fulfills Thoreau’s fantasy against the backdrop of founding a new nation, and how Westworld permits visitors to experience the Old West while bearing witness to Indian Removal. Each of these narratives imagines a future that retells the past. The chapters within look at that tradition in order to understand the present.

Aaron W Clayton is professor of English at Frederick Community College in Frederick, Maryland.

Aaron W Clayton. Series Editor Kyle William Bishop
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages:
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2023
pISBN: 978-1-4766-8493-2
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5027-2
Imprint: McFarland
Series: Contributions to Zombie Studies