Resurrection of the Monstrous Other: Zombification and Metaphors of Disease
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.2298/GEI2502267MKeywords:
zombie, undead, infection, disease, virusAbstract
The intersection of microbiological reality and the fantastical worlds of popular culture gives rise to a narrative discourse that embodies monstrosity in a uniquely terrifying form: biological, or more specifically, pandemic horror. Within this genre, monsters animate the mysterious nature of microbes, a theme particularly pronounced in zombie narratives. I conceptualize the zombie as a reanimated, dehumanized life form caught within the binary oppositions of life and death, health and illness, human and monster. These monstrous figures reflect collective anxieties about degenerative disease and bodily fragility. My research begins from the premise that illness – and its aftermath – is a fundamental component of the rhetoric and imagination surrounding undead monsters. The central aim of this study is to examine how zombies symbolically represent the effects of disease, using the tools of imagination to challenge and destabilize culturally and biologically entrenched understandings of health and illness as medically polarized categories.
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Извори
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