Night of the Living Allegory: The Politics of Zombies

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Summary <p>Born in Haitian folklore and inadvertently reinvented by director George A. Romero, the zombie is the most flexible metaphor in horror fiction, if not all of popular culture. It can represent a war, a virus, a natural disaster, terrorism, capitalism, climate change and much more. In fact, it’s hard to tell a zombie story that isn’t political in one way or another.</p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/IanDunt"><strong>Ian Dunt</strong></a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/dorianlynskey?lang=en"><strong>Dorian Lynskey</strong></a> follow the trail of the walking dead from the Caribbean to <em>Night of the Living Dead</em> and the global outbreak of zombiemania in the 21st century. What does the zombie tell us about life, death and civilisation? How can it contain so many different meanings? And why do the living dead remain uniquely disturbing after all these years?</p><p><br></p><p>Support Origin Story on Patreon for exclusive benefits including bonus chat about how Ian and Dorian make each episode: <a href="http://www.patreon.com/originstorypod">www.Patreon.com/originstorypod</a> </p><p><br></p><p><strong><u>Resources:</u></strong></p><p><strong>Books</strong></p><p>Kyle William Bishop — American Zombie Gothic: The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of the Walking Dead in Popular Culture, 2012</p><p>Kyle William Bishop — How Zombies Conquered Popular Culture: The Multifarious Walking Dead in the 21st Century, 2015</p><p>Max Brooks — World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, 2006</p><p>Greg Garrett — Living with the Living Dead: The Wisdom of the Zombie Apocalypse, 2017</p><p>Zachary Graves — Zombies: The Complete Guide to the World of the Living Dead, 2011</p><p>Peter Haining, ed. — Zombie!: Stories of the Walking Dead, 1985</p><p>Richard Matheson – I Am Legend, 1954</p><p>Kim Paffenroth — Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero’s Visions of Hell on Earth, 2006</p><p>George Romero &amp; Susanna Sparrow — Dawn of the Dead, 1979</p><p>Jamie Russell — Book of the Dead: The Complete History of Zombie Cinema, 2014</p><p>Colson Whitehead — Zone One, 2012</p><p>Tony Williams — The Cinema of George A. Romero: Knight of the Living Dead, 2015</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Films, TV and games</strong></p><p>White Zombie, 1932</p><p>I Walked with a Zombie, 1943</p><p>The Last Man on Earth, 1964</p><p>Night of the Living Dead, 1968</p><p>Dawn of the Dead, 1978</p><p>Day of the Dead, 1985</p><p>Resident Evil, 1996</p><p>28 Days Later, 2002</p><p>Shaun of the Dead, 2004</p><p>28 Weeks Later, 2007</p><p>I Am Legend, 2007</p><p>Dead Set, 2008</p><p>The Walking Dead, 2010-22</p><p>The Last of Us, 2022</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Online</strong></p><p>Doug Gross, Why we love those rotting, hungry, putrid zombies, CNN, 2009</p><p><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/10/02/zombie.love/index.html">https://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/10/02/zombie.love/index.html</a></p><p><br></p><p>Torie Bosch, First Eat All the Lawyers, Slate, 2011</p><p><a href="https://slate.com/culture/2011/10/zombies-the-zombie-boom-is-inspired-by-the-economy.html">https://slate.com/culture/2011/10/zombies-the-zombie-boom-is-inspired-by-the-economy.html</a></p><p><br></p><p>Thomas Jones, Les zombies, c’est vous, London Review of Books, 2012</p><p><a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v34/n02/thomas-jones/les-zombies-c-est-vous">https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v34/n02/thomas-jones/les-zombies-c-est-vous</a></p><p><br></p><p>Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Max Brooks Is Not Kidding About the Zombie Apocalypse, New York Times, 2013</p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/magazine/max-brooks-is-not-kidding-about-the-zombie-apocalypse.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/magazine/max-brooks-is-not-kidding-about-the-zombie-apocalypse.html</a></p><p><br></p><p>Interview with Alex Garland, 2015</p><p><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/interview-director-alex-g_b_7038618">https://www.huffpost.com/entry/interview-director-alex-g_b_7038618</a></p><p><br></p><p><em>Written and presented by Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt. Audio production by Simon Williams. Music by Jade Bailey. Logo art by Mischa Welsh. Lead Producer is Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. </em><strong><em>Origin Story is a Podmasters production.</em></strong></p><p><br></p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/OriginStorycast">https://twitter.com/OriginStorycast</a> </p><p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p>

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