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The Zombification of Zombies – from Religious Reality on Haiti to Postmodern Pop Cliché Around the World

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The Zombification of Zombies – from Religious Reality on Haiti to Postmodern Pop Cliché Around the World Universität Hildesheim Institut für englische Sprache und Literatur Master-Studiengang für Lehramt an Haupt- und Realschulen The Zombification of Zombies Ð from religious reality on Haiti to postmodern pop cliché around the world Abschlussarbeit zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Master of Education (M.Ed.) Vorgelegt von Peter Handke 1. Betreuer: Dr. Daniel Schäbler 2. Betreuer: Dr. Volker Pietsch Hildesheim, 12.10.2020 Abstract Zombies are omnipresent in the media landscape, and what was once a brutal revolt against mainstream cinema has now zombified itself in the mainstream as cliché. Even social structures are often compared with a zombie metaphor. The fear of the undead, however, is an ancient human concept that was not first encountered through the zombie. It should not be overlooked that zombies and zombification are real, religious phenomena practiced by Haitian black priests called bokors that are much more than just superstition and folklore with the bokors using poisoning to “resurrect” the (apparent) dead. These stories came to Hollywood through travel reports and quickly became part of the cinema world. The origins were quickly forgotten through the countless reinterpretations of zombies. Therefore, in this master’s thesis, I will compare the first zombie film White Zombie (1932), directed by Victor Halperin, with the current work 28 Days Later (2002), directed by Danny Boyle; a different approach to the representation of zombies is the popular cultural perception of the undead. This Master's thesis also provides a selective, yet representative, profile of worldwide and cross-epochal undead and zombie phenomena, motifs, symbolism and offers explanations for the human fears involved. It combines cultural and historical approaches with ancient, early modern, and (post)modern examples and is useful in the scientific fields of Cultural Studies, Literature studies and Film studies. Keywords: zombie, zombies, zombification, Haiti, horror, abjection, folklore, mythology, culture, undead, tetrodotoxin, archetypes, origin, symbolism, postmodernism, art, film history, literature, revenant, voodoo, White Zombie, 28 Days Later, Romero, living dead, trauma. Table of Contents 1. Introduction ...........................................................................................................................1 2. The undead origins ................................................................................................................3 2.1.Putrefaction, epidemics, burial Ð the undead as an abject and a paradox ...............3 2.2.Revenants and the undead of the European Middle Ages ......................................5 2.3.Apparent death as a rational explanation ................................................................7 2.4.Undead and revenants in art ...................................................................................8 2.5.The undead in non-European cultures ....................................................................9 2.6.(Contra)Diction of the undead ..............................................................................12 2.7.Fantastic foes and where to find them ..................................................................13 3. Zombies Ð religious reality on Haiti ...................................................................................15 3.1.The origins of zombies .........................................................................................15 3.2.Studies by Wade Davis .........................................................................................20 3.3.The traumas of slavery & influence of the bokors in Haitian politics ..................23 3.4.Criticism of Wade Davis’s studies ........................................................................25 3.5.The medialization of zombification ......................................................................26 4. From Haiti to Hollywood ....................................................................................................27 4.1.Analysis: White Zombie (1932). Directed by Victor Halperin .............................28 4.2.The zombie becomes cliché ..................................................................................35 4.3.Fears change the zombie Ð fake blood and red communism ................................36 4.4.The (post)modern danse macabre Ð when the G falls off from “Graveyard” .......38 4.5.Post mortem; postmodern .....................................................................................39 5. The 9/11 trauma ..................................................................................................................42 5.1.Analysis of 28 Days Later (2002). Directed by Danny Boyle ..............................43 5.2.From “evil priest” to “mad scientist” ...................................................................50 5.3.The multiplicity of zombies ..................................................................................52 5.4.To be or not to be a zombie ..................................................................................54 6. Conclusion and a perspective on future zombie aspects (the third genesis) .......................56 7. Bibliography ........................................................................................................................64 8. Appendix .............................................................................................................................72 9. Declaration of Authorship ...................................................................................................81 1. Introduction Zombies here, zombies there, zombies are everywhere Ð from the Haitian tropics to the American film tropes. The zombie joins the postmodern Hall of Fame of horror icons right next to vampires, aliens, kaijus, werewolves, witches and ghosts. Like all the other horror icons, the zombie has undergone several transformations in recent years and has been given new facets again and again, but due to the postmodern cycle and the resulting recitations in parodies, mainstream media and even media suitable for children, the zombie ultimately fell into a cliché. The zombie cult spreads rapidly in pop culture Ð virally, as modern zombie films would portray it. However, the zombie and the phenomenon of the walking dead are older than one might assume, even if the “zombie media boom”, which has been constantly pervading the media landscape since 2002, suggests this (cf. Bishop 2015, 5; Dendle 2007, 1). Death wanders between the living every day, the undead dominate the mentality and consumption of the living Ð transience and entertainment go hand in hand with the phenomenon “zombie”. So it is not surprising that pop icons like Michael Jackson ask for a danse macabre, we can use zombies as emoji1 in our messenger apps, we can drink a “ zombie” at the local cocktail bar, that terms like “zombification” or “zombie companies” have arrived in business language2 , that annual events like the Zombie Walk3 draw more and more public attention or Disney programs like Gravity Falls (2012, created by Alex Hirsch)4 pay homage to George A. Romero’s Night Of the Living Dead (1969) as a casual gag. The cannibalistic, rotting phenomenon has already arrived in elementary schools Ð colorful and set to cartoon sound effects in the fight against plants on the smartphone5 , in the popular open world construction game Minecraft (2009), as fashion doll for girls6 or as the first supernatural antagonist in the cartoon classic Scooby-Doo7. Nowadays we can focus on two zombie clichés: Slowly shuffling and moaning with outstretched arms under the control of a sorcerer, priest or necromancer or foaming with rabies, with bloodshot eyes, running athletically through the urban dystopia spreading a deadly virus. The zombie’s aim stays the 1 See APPENDIX, Fig. 1. 2 Hugh Pym, 'Zombie' companies eating away at economic growth. BBC.co.uk, 2012. Retrieved October 7, 2020 from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20262282. 3 “more than 50 cities worldwide participate in World Zombie Day including New York, Pittsburgh, Paris, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, and Tokyo.“ Ð Official Website of World Zombie Day, London. Retrieved October 7, 2020 from: https://worldzombieday.co.uk. 4Gravity Falls Ð Season 2, Episode 1: Scary-oke. (August 2014). 5Plants vs. Zombies series by PopCap Games and Electronic Arts (2009). 6 See APPENDIX, Fig. 2. 7 Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998), directed by Jim Stenstrum. 1 same, its mindless state longs for the most important things in humans: the brain Ð an organ for self-determination, rationality and morality; all that the zombie no longer has. What remains are aggressive consumption impulses and sugar-sweet zombie treats, as a matter of course in “brain form”8 . The zombie as motif of baseless consumption ends up in mainstream consumption Ð film, television, computer and video games, or the most popular forms of literature Ð comics, survival guides for the zombie apocalypse to mash-up novels like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2009, written by Jane Austen/Seth Grahame-Smith) or bloody High School Musical mash-ups like Anna and the Apocalypse (2017, directed by John McPhail) Ð the zombie is an omnipresent, clichéd icon of horror, immortal through black magic and immortal through postmodern trend and permanent recitation in mass media. The positive portrayal of the zombie, for example as a criminal investigator9 , as a romantic figure10 or even as a pet11 make it
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