10 Being human in a world of zombies (in The Walking Dead)
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Jack Holland
Abstract
This chapter uses the vehicle of American Movie Channel's The Walking Dead to explore one of the most fundamental questions we can ask as a species: what does it mean to be human? It begins by outlining the history and rise of the zombie genre. Then, the chapter explores how this relatively popular-culture penchant relates to IR and US world politics. Next, it analyses the discursive intervention of The Walking Dead, connecting the show's storylines with contemporary developments in American politics as well as more timeless issues of political theory. To do so, the chapter considers, further, the role of violence in understandings of humanity and human-ness and what it is that is at stake in struggles to contest these definitions. The Walking Dead makes a discursive intervention that highlights humanity's more problematic behaviours, nudging us to reconsider how we might act in the present.
Abstract
This chapter uses the vehicle of American Movie Channel's The Walking Dead to explore one of the most fundamental questions we can ask as a species: what does it mean to be human? It begins by outlining the history and rise of the zombie genre. Then, the chapter explores how this relatively popular-culture penchant relates to IR and US world politics. Next, it analyses the discursive intervention of The Walking Dead, connecting the show's storylines with contemporary developments in American politics as well as more timeless issues of political theory. To do so, the chapter considers, further, the role of violence in understandings of humanity and human-ness and what it is that is at stake in struggles to contest these definitions. The Walking Dead makes a discursive intervention that highlights humanity's more problematic behaviours, nudging us to reconsider how we might act in the present.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- Acknowledgements vi
- List of abbreviations vii
- 1 Introduction 1
- I Watching television 10
- 2 America and the screen 12
- 3 Screening America under Bush, Obama, and Trump 36
- 4 Drawing lines 57
- 5 Analysing fictional television 74
- II Politics and television 94
- 6 World politics as realpolitik (in House of Cards and Game of Thrones) 96
- 7 Constructing counter-terrorism (in Homeland, 24, and The West Wing) 113
- 8 Imagining the president (in The West Wing, 24, and Veep) 132
- III Television and our political world 152
- 9 Ethics and inequality (in The Wire) 154
- 10 Being human in a world of zombies (in The Walking Dead) 171
- 11 The personal is political (in Breaking Bad) 186
- 12 Conclusion 202
- Bibliography 215
- Index 236
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- Acknowledgements vi
- List of abbreviations vii
- 1 Introduction 1
- I Watching television 10
- 2 America and the screen 12
- 3 Screening America under Bush, Obama, and Trump 36
- 4 Drawing lines 57
- 5 Analysing fictional television 74
- II Politics and television 94
- 6 World politics as realpolitik (in House of Cards and Game of Thrones) 96
- 7 Constructing counter-terrorism (in Homeland, 24, and The West Wing) 113
- 8 Imagining the president (in The West Wing, 24, and Veep) 132
- III Television and our political world 152
- 9 Ethics and inequality (in The Wire) 154
- 10 Being human in a world of zombies (in The Walking Dead) 171
- 11 The personal is political (in Breaking Bad) 186
- 12 Conclusion 202
- Bibliography 215
- Index 236
