Magic to Manic: the Evolution of the Zombie Figure in Fiction and Its Basis in Moral Panic Dissemination

Magic To Manic: The Evolution Of The Zombie Figure In Fiction And Its Basis In Moral Panic Dissemination By Laetitia Cassells Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree MIS (Publishing) In the Department of Information Science Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology At the University of Pretoria Supervisor: Dr Elizabeth le Roux Date of submission: December 2015 © University of Pretoria © University of Pretoria I declare that the Master’s dissertation, which I hereby submit for the degree MIS (Publishing) at the University of Pretoria, is my own work and has not been previously submitted by me for a degree at another university. Laetitia Cassells © University of Pretoria © University of Pretoria Table of Contents List of Diagrams .......................................................................................................................... ii List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ iv Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... vi Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. viii Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background .................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Problem statement ..................................................................................................... 4 1.3 Research questions ..................................................................................................... 5 1.4 Value and relevance of research ................................................................................. 5 1.5 Conceptual framework ................................................................................................ 7 1.5.1 Definitions ............................................................................................................ 7 1.5.1.1 Defining the literary Zombie ....................................................................................... 7 1.5.1.2 Genre ......................................................................................................................... 10 1.5.1.3 Horror ........................................................................................................................ 10 1.5.1.4 Young Adult Fiction ................................................................................................... 11 1.5.1.5 Science fiction ........................................................................................................... 11 1.5.1.6 Popular fiction ........................................................................................................... 11 1.5.2 Defining cultural studies .................................................................................... 11 1.5.3 Zombie fiction as a genre ................................................................................... 13 1.5.4 Theoretical framework for the study ................................................................. 15 1.5.4.1 Zombies as cultural artefacts .................................................................................... 15 1.5.4.2 Bourdieu’s theory of cultural exchange .................................................................... 16 1.5.4.3 Moral panics theory .................................................................................................. 17 1.5.4.4 Popular culture influence on Zombie representation as a cultural artefact ............ 20 1.5.4.5 The static, horrific Zombie figure and its study using moral panics theory .............. 22 1.6 Methodology ............................................................................................................. 24 1.6.1 Selection of texts................................................................................................ 24 © University of Pretoria 1.6.2 Bibliographic analysis ......................................................................................... 25 1.6.3 Content analysis on selected text ...................................................................... 27 1.6.3.1 Analysing the data ..................................................................................................... 28 1.6.3.2 Inferences based on the model analysis ................................................................... 29 1.7 Scope and limitations of the study ............................................................................ 29 1.8 Chapter division......................................................................................................... 30 1.9 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 31 Chapter 2: Literature review .................................................................................................... 33 2.1 Published Zombies in History .................................................................................... 33 2.2 Introduction of Zombies into public discourse ......................................................... 36 2.2.1 The Zombie as an American concept ................................................................. 37 2.2.1.1 Colonial Zombie ........................................................................................................ 38 2.2.1.2 American Zombie ...................................................................................................... 38 2.2.1.3 Familial Zombie ......................................................................................................... 39 2.3 Introduction of Zombies into social and cultural discourse ...................................... 40 2.4 Previous media studies of Zombies .......................................................................... 41 2.5 Contextualizing Zombie studies in Cultural studies .................................................. 44 2.6 The study of consumer motive and its relation to popular literature ...................... 47 2.7 Cultural studies as a tool for bibliographic analysis .................................................. 49 2.8 Sociology of cultural artefacts ................................................................................... 51 2.9 Bourdieu’s field of cultural production ..................................................................... 51 2.10 Zombie literature studies ...................................................................................... 54 2.11 Moral Panics theory and its application to the figure of the ‘other’ .................... 58 The emergence and dissipation of moral panic ............................................................... 59 2.12 Moral panics identified in the periods studied ..................................................... 60 2.12.1 God and faith as aspects of morality ................................................................. 60 2.12.2 The growing threat of Satanism......................................................................... 61 © University of Pretoria 2.12.3 Paedophilia and child endangerment ................................................................ 62 2.12.4 HIV/AIDS and disease ......................................................................................... 62 2.12.5 Distrust in the government ................................................................................ 64 2.12.6 Terrorism ............................................................................................................ 64 2.12.7 The anti-vaccination movement ........................................................................ 65 2.13 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 66 Chapter 3: Methodology .......................................................................................................... 69 2.1 Introduction............................................................................................................... 69 2.1 Research design ......................................................................................................... 70 2.1.1 Bibliographic analysis ......................................................................................... 71 2.1.2 Sample selection ................................................................................................ 72 2.2 Analysis methods ...................................................................................................... 78 2.2.1 Analysing the bibliographic collection ............................................................... 78 2.2.2 The triangulation of data to ensure validity ...................................................... 79 2.2.3 Selecting novels for analysis .............................................................................. 80 2.2.4 Analysing the data ............................................................................................. 81 2.2.5 Moral panics theory ........................................................................................... 83 2.3 Limitations of methodology .....................................................................................

Load more