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"Science fiction and horror television shows predict how the world might be different if zombies were real, or if artificial intelligence could develop consciousness. Pop culture critics reveal that these not-quite humans are often proxies for race, and the post-apocalyptic landscapes set the stage for reimagining social and political institutions. This book advances horror scholarship by placing those stories within a long tradition of mythologizing U.S. history. It demonstrates how Disney's Zombies reenacts the civil rights movement, how The Walking Dead fulfills Thoreau's fantasy against the backdrop of founding a new nation, and how Westworld permits visitors to experience the Old West while bearing witness to Indian Removal. Each of these narratives imagines a future that retells the past. The chapters within look at that tradition in order to understand the present."--
List of contents
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments deletevi
Preface
Introduction
Chapter
Myths of Colonial America
Chapter
Lakota Ghost Dance and the Imaginary Frontier
Chapter Three
Caribbean and Gothic Origins of the American Zombie
Chapter Four
Social Critique and the Modern Zombie
Chapter Five
Civil Rights Movement Retold in Disney Zombies
Chapter
Destiny Manifested in Westworld's Philosophical Zombies
Conclusion
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Aaron W Clayton is professor of English at Frederick Community College in Frederick, Maryland.
Summary
Demonstrates how Disney’s Zombies reenacts the civil rights movement, how The Walking Dead fulfills Thoreau’s fantasy against the backdrop of founding a new nation, and how Westworld permits visitors to experience the Old West while bearing witness to Indian Removal. Each of these narratives imagines a future that retells the past.
