Dead Man Still Walking: a Critical Investigation Into the Rise and Fall
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Dead Man Still Walking: A Critical Investigation into the Rise and Fall . and Rise of Zombie Cinema Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Bishop, Kyle William Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 24/09/2021 04:36:09 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/194727 DEAD MAN STILL WALKING: A CRITICAL INVESTIGATION INTO THE RISE AND FALL . AND RISE OF ZOMBIE CINEMA by Kyle William Bishop ________________________ Copyright © Kyle William Bishop 2009 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2009 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Kyle William Bishop entitled Dead Man Still Walking: A Critical Investigation into the Rise and Fall . and Rise of Zombie Cinema and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 10 June 2009 Susan White _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 10 June 2009 Jerrold E. Hogle _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 10 June 2009 Carlos Gallego Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ________________________________________________ Date: 10 June 2009 Dissertation Director: Susan White 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: Kyle William Bishop 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My mother wonders where she went wrong in my upbringing. “Why not musicals?” she asks, “Why zombies, of all things?” Why indeed. I suffer from no debilitating trauma, have no deep-seated psychopathic impulses; yet I am fascinated by the singularity and longevity of the zombie narrative and by the essential role such films play in our society. I owe so much to a long genealogy of fine educators. My grandfather, VR Magleby, taught at Southern Utah University, where my mother Bonnie also came to work as a professor. My father Kent taught history at Cedar High School, and a learned not only from him but also from other inspirational educators, including Jeff Corry, Glade Sorensen, Harold Shirley, and Steve Shirts. At Brigham Young University, Arthur Bassett and Joseph Parry guided me through the Humanities Department, but the one who changed my course from art history to English and film studies was Dennis Cutchins. His literature and film class led me to the MA program at the University of Utah, where I studied American literature from Stuart Culver and Stephen Tatum, and I delved into film theory under the tutelage of my mentor Thomas Sobchack. Once hired at Southern Utah University, I learned the ropes from Doris Williamson, Jean Adams, Greg Colf, Ron Granger, and Connie Nyman. I owe my later appointment to the English Department to Carl Templin and Kay Cook, and it was there I received my greatest instruction in scholarship from the likes of Jim Aton, Ed McNicoll, S.S. Moorty, Robin Calland, and Kurt Harris. Todd Petersen and Jessica Tvordi in particular took me under their respective wings, becoming great mentors and even greater friends. One day at lunch, Todd and I began to brainstorm film genres that have no established antecedents in written literature. That conversation developed into a conference panel and my first published article, as I discovered the rather unique place the zombie has in the pantheon of movie monsters—born directly out of folklore, new to the twentieth century, and fundamentally American. I had officially begun my journey towards a Ph.D., and thanks primarily to Jessica, I made the move to the University of Arizona. I wish to thank those who have made this dissertation happen: Meg Lota Brown, who got me to Tucson in the first place; Charlie Bertsch, my graduate school mentor; my inspiring instructors Maribel Alvarez, Jennifer Jenkins, Suresh Raval, Judy Temple, and Lynda Zwinger; my dear friends Amy Parziale, James Wermers, Maggie Jesse, Jordan Tracey, Mike Kolakowski, Laura Bivona, and Alison Betts; and, of course, Marcia Marma. My deepest appreciation and gratitude go to Susan White, my wonderful and tireless dissertation director, and the other two members of my committee, the great Gothic scholar, Jerrold E. Hogle, and the brilliant critical theorist, Carlos Gallego. Everlasting thanks also go to the Pretenyrds of SUU, my other colleagues in the English Department, and, most of all, to my patient and longsuffering family, Rachel, Xander, and Sydney. 5 DEDICATION To Rachel, Xander, and Sydney. And also VR Magleby, the academic patriarch of my family. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ...............................................................................................8 ABSTRACT .........................................................................................................................9 INTRODUCTION: THE ZOMBIE FILM AND ITS CYCLES........................................10 The Developmental Cycles of Zombie Cinema: Bringing on the Renaissance ............13 The Primary Characteristics of Zombie Cinema: Understanding the Subgenre ...........24 The Twenty-First-Century Zombie: Explaining the Renaissance .................................34 Dead Man Still Walking ................................................................................................43 CHAPTER 1. RAISING THE LIVING DEAD: THE FOLKLORIC AND IDEOLOGICAL ORIGINS OF THE VOODOO ZOMBIE ..........................................54 Unearthing the Origins of the Zombie ..........................................................................55 The Historical and Cultural Environment of Haiti ........................................................60 The Zombie as Folkloristic Artifact ..............................................................................68 The Zombie as Ideological Apparatus ...........................................................................76 Zombies “Invade” the United States .............................................................................87 CHAPTER 2. THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE: IMPERIALIST HEGEMONY AND THE CINEMATIC VOODOO ZOMBIE ............................................................95 The Zombie as Exotic, Postcolonial Terror ...................................................................98 The Sub-Subaltern Monster and the Perpetuation of Imperialist Hegemony .............108 An Inversion of Jane Eyre and the Unavoidable Legacy of Slavery ..........................119 CHAPTER 3. THE RISE OF THE NEW PARADIGM: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD AND THE ZOMBIE INVASION NARRATIVE ............................................140 Assembling Night of the Living Dead from the Existing Monster Tradition ..............142 Inverting the Monster Narrative—The Monsters En Masse .......................................153 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS—Continued The Invasion of the Home by the Unheimlich ............................................................161 Reading the Zombie Invasion Narrative .....................................................................167 Romero’s Redeployment of the Gothic Tradition .......................................................179 CHAPTER 4. THE DEAD WALK THE EARTH: THE TRIUMPH OF THE ZOMBIE SOCIAL METAPHOR IN DAWN OF THE DEAD ....................................194 An Increase in Abjection, from Night until the Dawn ................................................197 The New “Zombie Economy” of the Apocalypse .......................................................207 The Gothic Mall of Dawn of the Dead ........................................................................216 The Idle Proletariat: The Death of Species Being at the End of History ....................227 CHAPTER 5. HUMANIZING THE LIVING DEAD: THE EVOLUTION OF THE ZOMBIE PROTAGONIST .................................................................................240 “Second Wave” Zombie Cinema and the Coming of Day ..........................................243 Humanizing the Zombie via Cinematic Suture ...........................................................252 The Pathetic Dead of Day of the Dead ........................................................................265 The Rise of the “Zombedies” and “Splatstick” Cinema ..............................................274 The Zombie Protagonists of Land of the