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This Handbook is a unique encompassing overview of the figure of the Zombie. This project will show that while there are many zombies and many texts about zombies it is still often mistakenly viewed as little more than a sub-genre of Horror. However, its history and multiplicity warrants something far more ambitious in terms of cataloguing and defining its many forms, types and possible readings. Consequently, this Handbook proposes to feature elements of all the many and varied representations, narratives, and theories of the zombie, across cultures, histories and mediums to show that it is not just as multifaceted story-world, but is much more akin to a genre in its own right, or what we might term the Zombie Megatext.
List of contents
Folklore and the Returning Dead: Europe.- Folklore and the Returning Dead: Asia and Middle East.- Zombies in 19th and Early 20th Century Literature.- Vodou/Voodoo.- Zombies in Hollywood 1930s-50s.- Writing the Zombie Post WWII.- Zombies Across the Globe Post WWII.- After the Night of the Living Dead.- Zombie Exploitation.- Zombie Ideologies.- Zombies and Sexuality.- Zombie Comics, Manga and Anime.- Gaming and Role Play: Immersion to Extraction.- Zombie Franchises.- Zombies are Just Like Us.- Zombies and Modern Life.- 21st Century Zombie Literature.- Indigenous Identity and Zombies.- The Asian Zombie Revival.- The Anthropocene and Zombie Futures.
About the author
Simon Bacon is an Independent Scholar based in Poznań, Poland. He has authored, edited or co-edited 40 books on various subjects including Gothic: A Reader (Peter Lang 2018), Horror: A Companion (Peter Lang 2019), Monsters: A Companion (Peter Lang 2020), and The Evolution of Horror in the Twenty-First Century (Lexington 2023). He has also published a series of books on the undead in popular culture which includes: The Anthropocene and the Undead (Lexington 2022), The Undead in the 21st Century: A Companion (Peter Lang 2022), Faith and the Zombie: Critical Essays on the End of the World and Beyond (McFarland 2023), Death in the 21st Century: A Companion (Peter Lang 2024), Zombie Futures in Literature, Media and Culture (Bloomsbury 2024), and The Handbook of the Vampire (Palgrave 2024). He is also series editor for Genre, Fiction and Film Companions, and Vampire Studies: New Perspectives on the Undead, both at Peter Lang and can be contacted at: baconetti@gmail.com.
Summary
This Handbook is a unique encompassing overview of the figure of the Zombie. This project will show that while there are many zombies and many texts about zombies it is still often mistakenly viewed as little more than a sub-genre of Horror. However, its history and multiplicity warrants something far more ambitious in terms of cataloguing and defining its many forms, types and possible readings. Consequently, this Handbook proposes to feature elements of all the many and varied representations, narratives, and theories of the zombie, across cultures, histories and mediums to show that it is not just as multifaceted story-world, but is much more akin to a genre in its own right, or what we might term the Zombie Megatext.
