University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School April 2018 As Good as it Gets: Redefining Survival through Post-Race and Post-Feminism in Apocalyptic Film and Television Mark R. McCarthy University of South Florida,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the Communication Commons Scholar Commons Citation McCarthy, Mark R., "As Good as it Gets: Redefining Survival through Post-Race and Post-Feminism in Apocalyptic Film and Television" (2018). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/7196 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. As Good as it Gets: Redefining Survival through Post-Race and Post-Feminism in Apocalyptic Film and Television by Mark R. McCarthy A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Communication College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Rachel Dubrofsky, Ph.D. Ambar Basu, Ph.D. David A. Payne, Ph.D. Amy Rust, Ph.D. Date of Approval: April 5, 2018 Keywords: media, race, gender, neoliberalism, walking dead Copyright © 2018, Mark R. McCarthy DEDICATION To my mother who never stopped encouraging me. And to my grandfather “Mac,” a source of gentle wisdom, and whose example continues inspiring me to learn. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, thank you to my committee Drs. Rachel Dubrofsky, Ambar Basu, A.