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This book traces how The Walking Dead franchise narratively, visually, and rhetorically represents transgressions against heteronormativity and the nuclear family. The introduction argues that The Walking Dead reflects cultural anxiety over threats to the family. Chapter 1 examines the destructive competition created by heteronormativity, such as the conflict between Rick and Shane. Chapter 2 focuses on the actual or attempted participation of characters such as Carol and Negan in queer relationships. Chapter 3 interprets zombies as queer antagonists to heteronormativity, while Chapter 4 explores the incorporation of zombies into the lives of characters such as the Governor and the Whisperers. The conclusion asserts that The Walking Dead presents both queer alternatives to and damaging contradictions within the traditional heterosexual family model, helping to question this model and to consider the struggle of queer American families. Overall, this study holdsspecial interest for students and scholars of queerness, zombies, and the family.
List of contents
1. Introduction.- Part I Living Families.- 2. That Is My Wife: Futurism and Patriarchal Competition.- 3. Insane Proposals: Beyond Monogamy as Beyond Rationality.- Part II Living/Dead Families.- 4. What Happens in the Barn Stays in the Barn: Families and Zombies as Sinthomosexuals.- 5. Out of the Barn: Alternative Families and the Undead.- 6. Conclusion: A Terminus.
About the author
John R. Ziegler is Assistant Professor of English at Bronx Community College, CUNY, USA. His research straddles the 16th–17th and 20th–21st centuries, and he has published on early modern English and Irish literature, ghosts, zombies, and video games. He also co-edits the journal Supernatural Studies and reviews theater for Culture Catch.
Summary
This book traces how The Walking Dead franchise narratively, visually, and rhetorically represents transgressions against heteronormativity and the nuclear family. The introduction argues that The Walking Dead reflects cultural anxiety over threats to the family. Chapter 1 examines the destructive competition created by heteronormativity, such as the conflict between Rick and Shane. Chapter 2 focuses on the actual or attempted participation of characters such as Carol and Negan in queer relationships. Chapter 3 interprets zombies as queer antagonists to heteronormativity, while Chapter 4 explores the incorporation of zombies into the lives of characters such as the Governor and the Whisperers. The conclusion asserts that The Walking Dead presents both queer alternatives to and damaging contradictions within the traditional heterosexual family model, helping to question this model and to consider the struggle of queer American families. Overall, this study holdsspecial interest for students and scholars of queerness, zombies, and the family.
Additional text
“Queering the Family in The Walking Dead is a useful text for people interested in queer theory and zombie studies. Zeigler has many solid arguments and observations throughout his text, and scholars would benefit from taking his arguments and applying them to other pop culture franchises to examine the way heteronormativity and the nuclear family is entrenched in the media alongside the denigration of queer and alternative family structures.” (Mary F. McGinnis, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, Vol. 32 (1), 2021)
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"Queering the Family in The Walking Dead is a useful text for people interested in queer theory and zombie studies. Zeigler has many solid arguments and observations throughout his text, and scholars would benefit from taking his arguments and applying them to other pop culture franchises to examine the way heteronormativity and the nuclear family is entrenched in the media alongside the denigration of queer and alternative family structures." (Mary F. McGinnis, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, Vol. 32 (1), 2021)
