Trouble with zombies: Bare life, Muselmanner and displaced people
This article considers the increase in media representations of zombies during the first decade of the 2000s. It argues that a connection can be read between the new preoccupation with zombies and anxieties over the apparent threat posed by those without rights attempting to enter Western countries....
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
Edinburgh University Press
2011
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/14587 |
| _version_ | 1848748662851633152 |
|---|---|
| author | Stratton, Jon |
| author_facet | Stratton, Jon |
| author_sort | Stratton, Jon |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This article considers the increase in media representations of zombies during the first decade of the 2000s. It argues that a connection can be read between the new preoccupation with zombies and anxieties over the apparent threat posed by those without rights attempting to enter Western countries. The article sets up a theoretical argument using the work of Giorgio Agamben. Taking on board Agamben's discussion of ‘bare life’, the article follows Agamben in making a link between this idea and the Muselmann, the Jew reduced to the walking dead in the concentration and death camps. For Agamben, bare life is central to the functioning of the modern state. The article suggests that bare life is a way of connecting the Muselmann with the zombie as that monster has been elaborated in films since George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968). Indeed, where Agamben argues that the werewolf was the characterising monster of the premodern era, this article argues that the zombie is the characterising monster of the modern era. The article goes on to make the connection between bare life, Muselmänner, zombies and displaced people, most commonly understood as asylum seekers. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T07:08:37Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-14587 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T07:08:37Z |
| publishDate | 2011 |
| publisher | Edinburgh University Press |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-145872017-09-13T14:07:13Z Trouble with zombies: Bare life, Muselmanner and displaced people Stratton, Jon bare life Agamben Muselmänner asylum seekers zombies This article considers the increase in media representations of zombies during the first decade of the 2000s. It argues that a connection can be read between the new preoccupation with zombies and anxieties over the apparent threat posed by those without rights attempting to enter Western countries. The article sets up a theoretical argument using the work of Giorgio Agamben. Taking on board Agamben's discussion of ‘bare life’, the article follows Agamben in making a link between this idea and the Muselmann, the Jew reduced to the walking dead in the concentration and death camps. For Agamben, bare life is central to the functioning of the modern state. The article suggests that bare life is a way of connecting the Muselmann with the zombie as that monster has been elaborated in films since George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968). Indeed, where Agamben argues that the werewolf was the characterising monster of the premodern era, this article argues that the zombie is the characterising monster of the modern era. The article goes on to make the connection between bare life, Muselmänner, zombies and displaced people, most commonly understood as asylum seekers. 2011 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/14587 10.3366/soma.2011.0013 Edinburgh University Press fulltext |
| spellingShingle | bare life Agamben Muselmänner asylum seekers zombies Stratton, Jon Trouble with zombies: Bare life, Muselmanner and displaced people |
| title | Trouble with zombies: Bare life, Muselmanner and displaced people |
| title_full | Trouble with zombies: Bare life, Muselmanner and displaced people |
| title_fullStr | Trouble with zombies: Bare life, Muselmanner and displaced people |
| title_full_unstemmed | Trouble with zombies: Bare life, Muselmanner and displaced people |
| title_short | Trouble with zombies: Bare life, Muselmanner and displaced people |
| title_sort | trouble with zombies: bare life, muselmanner and displaced people |
| topic | bare life Agamben Muselmänner asylum seekers zombies |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/14587 |