Abstract
A stalker of peripheries, this chapter examines the changing representation and perception of the zombie as a figure of fear and anxietal embodiment. Beginning with a consideration of the figure’s historical origins and progressing through the political and cultural landscapes that influence its necessary metamorphosis, the common defining characteristic of the figure, we see, has commonly been the absence of sentience. Recent reincarnations, however, have seen the figure retain both its sentience and volition, positioned in the role of protagonist-narrator, this chapter considers the implications of this new development and maps the figure’s trajectory from mindless drone to othered individual.
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Gardner, K. (2020). Zombie Folklore to Existential Protagonists. In: Bloom, C. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Gothic. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33136-8_30
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33136-8_30
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