The Last of the Living: Quarantine as a Critique in Two Popular Culture Apocalyptic Narratives

Authors

  • MARINA MANDIĆ Етнографски институт САНУ, Београд Author
  • VESNA TRIFUNOVIĆ Етнографски институт САНУ, Београд Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2298/GEI2303159M

Keywords:

pandemic, state, apocalypse, popular culture, quarantine

Abstract

This paper analyzes two popular culture narratives created in the period of the COVID-19 pandemic: the movie Songbird, made in 2020, and the TV show The Last of Us, from 2023. The main idea of this paper is to analyze the ways in which popular culture, through different pandemic narratives, perceives the future of social systems after the appearance of the deadly disease, as experienced in current reality as well as in pop-cultural narratives. The paper will point to the pandemic apocalypse as an environment of a new social reality, that is, the quarantine as a critique of state organization and regulation.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Abrams, Courtney B., Karen Albright & Aaron Panofsky. 2004. “Contesting the New York Community: From Liminality to the ’New Normal’ in the Wake of September 11.” City & Community 3 (3): 189–220.

Banić Grubišić, Ana. 2013. „Antropološki pristup medijima – kratak pregled (sa posebnim osvrtom na igrani film).“ Antropologija 13 (2): 135–155.

Beck, Ulrich. 1992. Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London: Sage Publications.

Burleson, L. Samuel, James C. Crosby, Christopher J. Greene, Matthew A.

Heimann & David C. Pigott. 2020. “Coronavirus disease 2019: International public health Considerations.” JACEP Open 1: 70–77.

Davis, Mark. 2017. “Is it Going to be Real? Narrative and Media on a Pandemic.” FQS 18 (1): 1–19.

Dhole, Monika & Tapas Kumar Koley. 2021. The Covid-19 Pandemic: The Deadly Coronavirus Outbreak. New York: Routledge.

Foucault, Michel. 1991. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of Prison. New York: Vintage Books.

Foucault, Michel. 2006. History of Madness. New York: Routledge.

Hawkins, Richard. 2004. “Looking beyond the dot com bubble: exploring the form and function of business models in the electronic marketplace.” In E-Life after the Dot Com Bust, eds. Preissl B., Bouwman H. & Steinfield C., 65–81. Heidelberg: Physica.

Horvat, Srećko. 2021. Posle apokalipse. Beograd: Laguna.

Krajčovič, Peter. 2021. “Editor’s Introduction.” Communication Today 12 (1): 2.

Kruger, Erin, Marlene Mulder & Bojan Korenic. 2004. “Canada after 11 September: Security Measures and ’Preferred’ Immigrants.” Mediterranean Quarterly 15 (4): 72–87.

Manaugh, Geoff & Nicola Twilley. 2021. Until Proven Safe: the History and Future of Quarantine. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Mandić, Marina. 2019. „Između stvarnog i zamišljenog: infektivna oboljenja u kinematografiji na primeru filma Variola Vera.“ Etnoantropološki problem 14 (2): 487–505.

Mandić, Marina. 2021. „Viralna apokalipsa: diskursi širenja i zaustavljanja epidemije na primeru filmskih narativa o zombijima.“ Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU LXIX (3): 675–687.

Mandić, Marina. 2022. „Nemrtvi novi svet: okruženje apokalipse i društveni odnosi usled epidemije zombija.“ Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU LXX (1): 197-221.

Martin, L. Lawrence, Richard Levey & Jenna Cawley. 2012. “The ’New Normal’for Local Government.” State and Local Government Review 44 (1): 17–28.

Pišev, Marko, Bojan Žikić & Mladen Stajić. 2020a. „Indeks ’korona’: simbolička upotreba kovida-19 u javnom govoru Srbije.“ Etnoantropološki problemi 15 (3): 845–877.

Pišev, Marko, Mladen Stajić & Bojan Žikić. 2020b. „Nova društvena i kulturna normalnost i kovid-19 u Srbiji od februara do maja 2020. godine.“ Etnoantropološki problemi 15 (4): 949–978.

Singer, Merrill. 2015. The Anthropology of Infectious Disease. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press, Inc.

Snowden, Frank M. 2019. Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present. Yale University Press: New Haven and London.

Stajić, Mladen. 2021. “Covid-19 vs Leprosy, the Plague and Smallpox: Foucauldian Perspective.” Antropologija 21 (3): 9–22.

Tomes, Nancy. 2002. “Epidemic Entertainments: Disease and Popular Culture in Early-Twentieth-Century America”. American Literary History 14 (4): 625–652.

Trifunović, Vesna & Ivan Đorđević. 2021. „Kultura ’nove normalnosti’ – značenje i upotreba pojma.“ Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU LXIX (3): 519–530.

Zarić, Zona & Ivica Mladenović. 2021. “The Pandemic: A Breeding Ground for Authoritarian Power Grabs.” Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU LXIX (3): 609–623.

Žikić, Bojan. 2012. „Popularna kultura: nadkulturna komunikacija.“ Etnoantropološki problemi 7 (2): 315–341.

Žižek, Slavoj. 2020. Pandemic! Covid-19 Shakes the World. New York and London: OR Books.

Извори

Songbird (Птица певачица). 2020. Red. Adam Mason. STX Films, Invisible Narratives, Platinum Dunes.

The Last of Us (Последњи међу нама). 2023. Proizveli Neil Druckmann, Craig Mazin. HBO.

Downloads

Published

2023-12-15

How to Cite

MANDIĆ, M., & TRIFUNOVIĆ, V. (2023). The Last of the Living: Quarantine as a Critique in Two Popular Culture Apocalyptic Narratives. Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnography SASA, 71(3), 159-178. https://doi.org/10.2298/GEI2303159M

Most read articles by the same author(s)

Similar Articles

1-10 of 33

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.