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. David Payne, and Amy Rust. Each of you have contributed to my journey in immeasurable ways. Rachel Dubrofsky, you saw something in my “movie trailers,” pushing me to take some really great beginnings and turn them into real scholarship. I am honored that David Payne has been with me through two graduate successes, pairing his great advice with a taming calmness. Ambar Basu who kicked confidence into me at all the right moments. And to Amy Rust, whose passion for film and her students are equally inspiring. Thank you to all of my USF Communication family, especially my writing (and laughing) partners through this journey: Dr. Joey Bartell for her mix of brilliance and goofiness, Dr. Tasha Dunn for keeping me in check with three little words, Dr. Heather Curry for ensuring I was always properly hydrated, and Ariane Anderson without whom this last stretch would not have been possible. And to Katie Cabana whose crazy laugh and questionable vocabulary skills made hours of writing bearable. Finally, thank you Michael Marti for showing me what doing the impossible looks like. As an example, you taught me to push the limits of my attention span and focus. And as my single greatest support you were always there to lean on when I needed it, encourage me even if I did not want to hear it, and most of all I wanted to make you proud. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iii Introduction: The Beginning of the End ..........................................................................................1 Apocalypse Then… and Now .............................................................................................3 Media Sites ...........................................................................................................................8 Apocalyptic Divisions ........................................................................................................14 Methodology and Theoretical Foundations .......................................................................15 Post-race Theoretical Foundations .........................................................................19 Post-feminist Theoretical Foundations ..................................................................24 Representing Survivors: The Importance of Genre ...............................................27 Coming Together ...............................................................................................................31 Neo-Liberal Collaboration .................................................................................................34 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................38 Chapters .............................................................................................................................40 Chapter One: Inoculation ...............................................................................................................42 Theoretical Intervention and Focus ...................................................................................42 Inoculation .........................................................................................................................44 Erasing Racist Characters ......................................................................................46 Erasing Storylines .................................................................................................54 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................62 Chapter Two: Keeping up Appearances: Diversity as Equality ....................................................64 Theoretical Intervention and Focus ...................................................................................64 Diversions ..........................................................................................................................65 Diversity in Numbers .........................................................................................................66 Racism in the Subtext ........................................................................................................67 Ironic Racism .....................................................................................................................77 Accessorizing Race ............................................................................................................79 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................92 Chapter Three: Framing Motherhood in the Lost Apocalypse ......................................................93 Theoretical Intervention and Focus ...................................................................................93 The Final Mother ...............................................................................................................97 Errant Mothers .................................................................................................................108 Errant no More: Kee as Ideal Mother ..............................................................................120 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................122 Chapter Four: Spectacles of Failure .............................................................................................124 i Theoretical Intervention and Focus .................................................................................124 The Glass Coffin ..............................................................................................................128 Ana .......................................................................................................................129 Deanna .................................................................................................................134 Dawn ....................................................................................................................141 Weakened Warriors .........................................................................................................145 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................155 Conclusion: Where do you go when the End is Your Beginning? ..............................................156 A Way Backwards ...........................................................................................................158 New Directions: Going Global ........................................................................................161 References ....................................................................................................................................165 ii Abstract Concentrating on six representative media sites, 28 Days Later (2002), Dawn of the Dead (2004), Land of the Dead (2005), Children of Men (2007), Snowpiercer (2013), and one television series The Walking Dead (2010-present), this dissertation examines the strain of post- millennial apocalyptic media emphasizing a neo-liberal form of collaboration as the path to survival. Unlike traditional collaboration, the neo-liberal construction centers on the individual’s responsibility in maintaining harmony through intra-group homogeny. Through close textual analysis, critical race theory, and feminist media studies, this project seeks to understand how post-racial and post-feminist representational strategies elide inequality and ignore tensions surrounding racial or gender differences to create harmony-through-homogeny