course

Course Credit:  3.0

This course explores the zombie as a literary, historical, and pop culture archetype, focusing on the role of the zombie in horror, adventure, fantasy, and satiric literature and film. Spanning Antiquity to the present, this course surveys literature, cinema, and critical theory to examine the earliest precedents of the undead in the Ancient and Classical world, the origins of zombies in West Africa and the Caribbean, their adoption in Western culture, and their subsequent proliferation in Latin America, Asia, and (back to) Africa. Zombies provide an ideal means through which to examine cultures and issues of xenophobia, globalization, capitalism, and individuality. It is a symbol that has crossed many borders, reaching truly global status in the last twenty years. Weekly assignments will require written reflection and analysis.