Reading the Great American Zombie: The Living Dead in Literature

Reading the Great American Zombie: The Living Dead in Literature
ISBN-10
1476648263
ISBN-13
9781476648262
Category
Literary Criticism
Pages
209
Language
English
Published
2023-08-02
Publisher
McFarland
Author
T. May Stone

Description

Challenging the human understanding of life and death, the zombie figure represents a fragmentation of personhood. From its earliest appearances in literature, the zombie characterized a human being that was no longer an indivisible whole, embodying the ontological debate over which elements of personhood are most uniquely human. Through its literary evolution, the zombie's missing element gradually approached a finer definition, as narratives moved beyond highlighting metaphysically opaque concepts like "soul" or "will." Studying over a century of American literary history, this book explores how zombies translate cultural concepts and definitions of personhood. Chapters detail how literary zombies have long presented narratives of American cultural self-examination.

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