The Emergence and Development of the Sentient Zombie: Zombie
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The Emergence and Development of the Sentient Zombie: Zombie Monstrosity in Postmodern and Posthuman Gothic Kelly Gardner Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy Division of Literature and Languages University of Stirling 31st October 2015 1 Abstract “If you’ve never woken up from a car accident to discover that your wife is dead and you’re an animated rotting corpse, then you probably won’t understand.” (S. G. Browne, Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament) The zombie narrative has seen an increasing trend towards the emergence of a zombie sentience. The intention of this thesis is to examine the cultural framework that has informed the contemporary figure of the zombie, with specific attention directed towards the role of the thinking, conscious or sentient zombie. This examination will include an exploration of the zombie’s folkloric origin, prior to the naming of the figure in 1819, as well as the Haitian appropriation and reproduction of the figure as a representation of Haitian identity. The destructive nature of the zombie, this thesis argues, sees itself intrinsically linked to the notion of apocalypse; however, through a consideration of Frank Kermode’s A Sense of an Ending, the second chapter of this thesis will propose that the zombie need not represent an apocalypse that brings devastation upon humanity, but rather one that functions to alter perceptions of ‘humanity’ itself. The third chapter of this thesis explores the use of the term “braaaaiiinnss” as the epitomised zombie voice in the figure’s development as an effective threat within zombie-themed videogames. The use of an epitomised zombie voice, I argue, results in the potential for the embodiment of a zombie subject. Chapter Four explores the development of this embodied zombie subject through the introduction of the Zombie Memoire narrative and examines the figure as a representation of Agamben’s Homo Sacer or ‘bare life’: though often configured as a 2 non-sacrificial object that can be annihilated without sacrifice and consequence, the zombie, I argue, is also paradoxically inscribed in a different, Girardian economy of death that renders it as the scapegoat to the construction of a sense of the ‘human’. The final chapter of this thesis argues that both the traditional zombie and the sentient zombie function within the realm of a posthuman potentiality, one that, to varying degrees of success, attempts to progress past the restrictive binaries constructed within the overruling discourse of humanism. In conclusion, this thesis argues that while the zombie, both traditional and sentient, attempts to propose a necessary move towards a posthuman universalism, this move can only be considered if the ‘us’ of humanism embraces the potential of its own alterity. 3 Table of Contents Acknowledgements 5 Declaration 6 Introduction 7 Chapter One: Haitian Identity and the Caribbean Zombie 39 Chapter Two: Reading and Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse 60 Chapter Three: Braaiinnsss!: Zombie-Technology, Play and Sound 100 Chapter Four: Zombie Sentience 126 Chapter Five: All You Zombies 168 Conclusion: 211 Bibliography 224 4 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Doctor Dale Townshend for his unending support, patience, and invaluable supervisory guidance. My thanks also to the office staff of the Division of Literature and Languages and the Graduate Studies Office for their administrative support. I will be forever grateful to the many members of the International Gothic Association who have inspired and motivated me throughout the duration of my research. It is a privilege to be associated with such a supportive group of scholars. I would also like to thank my colleagues in F30 for their encouragement, friendship, and the endless tea breaks spent comparing woes. Most importantly, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my family for their constant love and support. To my father, Rick Gardner, for always believing in me. To my mother, Donna Gardner, for her consistent positivity. And to my late grandfather, William McConnell, for his inspiring enthusiasm. Finally, I would like to thank Luma, whose comforting purrs saw me through many a long night. 5 Authors Declaration I declare that this thesis is my own work and that all critical and other sources (literary and electronic) have been specifically and properly acknowledged, as and when they occur in the body of my text. Parts of this thesis appear in the following publications: Gardner, Kelly. "Zombie Survival Guides: Denying the Apocalypse." A Critical Approach to the Apocalypse. Ed. Heidi Yeandle and Alexandra Simon-López. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary, 2013. N. pag. E-Book. Gardner, Kelly. "Braaiinnsss! Zombie Technology, Play and Sound." Technologies of the Gothic in Literature and Culture: Technogothics. Ed. Justin D. Edwards. New York: Routledge, 2015. 71-83. Print. Gardner, Kelly. "Reading and Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse." Imagining the End: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Apocalypse. Ed. Thomas E. Bishop and Jeremy R. Strong. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary, 2015. 185-208. Print. Gardner, Kelly. "'They Are Not Men, Monsieur... They Are Zombies...': The Construction of Haitian Identity and the Work of the Left Hand." Tropical Gothic in Literature and Culture. Ed. Justin D. Edwards and Sandra G. T. Vasconcelos. S.l.: Routledge, 2016. 73-86. Print. Signed: Kelly Gardner Date: 31/10/2015 6 Introduction The figure that we have now come to know as the zombie has haunted the peripheries of folklore and narratives since the first stirrings of literature. Defying concrete definition, the figure has been in a state of flux, metamorphosing with each appearance, a descriptive manifestation of cultural anxieties regarding selfhood and the transition from life to death. While genealogical approaches to zombie research habitually credit the zombie’s African origins, this is but a mere stage in the development of the zombie of contemporary literature. In the introduction to the collection of essays entitled Better off Dead,1 editors Lauro and Christie recognise the difficulty in defining the nature of the zombie: If the zombie has evolved so much over the course of the twentieth century that, at the beginning of the twenty-first, it is nearly unrecognizable, then surely there is a need to define exactly what we mean when we call something a zombie, to chart the evolution of this concept, and to map out the ways that this monster has been and will continue to be a useful theoretical apparatus… (Christie and Lauro 2-3) As this suggests, there has been much debate regarding the particular classification of a zombie and how this particular form of monstrosity can be distinguished from its fellow revenants, vampires and other Gothic horrors. June Pulliam writes of the two basic criteria that should be applied when categorising a creature of horror as a zombie.2 Firstly, she says, “it must be the reanimated corpse or possessed living body of one person (or animal)” (Pulliam 724), thereby excluding the amalgamation that is 1 Deborah Christie, and Sarah Juliet Lauro. Better off Dead: The Evolution of the Zombie as Post- 7 Frankenstein’s monster and various materials that are used in the formation of a golem. Secondly, to be classified as a zombie, Pulliam maintains that the figure must have “a lack of free will” (Pulliam 724). It is these two characteristics that separate the zombie from his fellow walking dead. In an attempt to label a creature that is still very much in development, given the current obsession with the flesh-eating hordes, Pulliam is limiting the scope of academic study with regard to a figure like the zombie. By stating a definitive formula with which we are to measure against all existing versions of zombieism, Pulliam is excluding a number of zombie figures that, when duly considered and studied, could substantially enrich our knowledge and understanding of the current cultural zombie phenomenon. Conceptual Framework The conceptual framework of this thesis takes inspiration from Frank Kermode’s theory of narrative trajectory, as explored in The Sense of and Ending.2 Kermode states, “to make sense of their span [men] need fictive concords with origins and ends, such as give meaning to lives and to poems.” (Kermode 7) For Kermode, it is the meaning of the narrative that informs its structure, and in the same way that Kermode speaks of “satisfying one’s need to know the shape of life in relation to the perspectives of time” (Kermode 3), the structure of this thesis has been dictated by the very narrative it will examine, starting with the earliest folkloric suggestions of zombieism and extending beyond contemporary manifestations to a prediction of what awaits the figure in the future. As a figure of malleable representation, the zombie is best considered from a multiplicity of theoretical perspectives, and as such, this thesis will incorporate a 2 The Sense of an Ending will return to play a critical role in Chapter Two’s exploration of apocalypse. 8 range of critical theories in the examining of a wide spectrum of zombie narratives in varying forms. The narratives featured within this thesis are not strictly literary, as the figure of the zombie denies relegation to a single mode of representation, rather, this thesis will examine the role the contemporary zombie has played in folklore, film, literature, and video games. The aim of this thesis is thus to consider the emergence and development of the sentient zombie in contemporary zombie literature by mapping this exploration alongside the larger narrative trajectory of the figure from its origins to its modern incarnation. I use the Haitian origins of the zombie to demonstrate that the concept of identity is firmly linked with the figure. I then explore the connection between the zombie and apocalypse, particularly the role of Zombie Apocalypse Survival Guides, to demonstrate that the figure of the zombie cannot simply be annihilated, but rather indicates the necessary societal changes that must occur should society wish to exist beyond the apocalyptic aftermath.