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The figure of the zombie that entered the popular imagination with the publication of William Seabrook's The Magic Island (1929)--during the American occupation of Haiti--still holds cultural currency around the world.
This book calls for a rethinking of zombies in a sociopolitical context through the examination of several films, including White Zombie (1932), The Love Wanga (1935), I Walked with a Zombie (1943) and The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988). A 21st-century film from Haiti, Zombi candidat a la presidence ... ou les amours d'un zombi, is also examined.
A reading of Heading South (2005), a film about the female tourist industry in the Caribbean, explores zombification as a consumptive process driven by capitalism.
List of contents
Table of ContentsA Note on Spelling
Preface: Zombis/Zombies and Me
Introduction: Of History, Neocolonialism, Vodou/Voodoo and the Zombi/Zombie
One. White Zombie and I Walked with a Zombie: The Haitian Revolution and White Southern Fears
Two. The Love Wanga: The American Occupation and Miscegenation
Three. Heading South and Zombification or "Haiti is open for business"
Four. The Serpent and the Rainbow and the 1986 Revolution
Five. Zombi candidat à la présidence ... ou les amours d'un zombi and the Resurgence of La politique de doublure
Conclusion: Tasting Salt
Chapter Notes
Works Cited
Index
About the author
Toni Pressley-Sanon is an assistant professor at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
