How Zombies Conquered Popular Culture - (Contributions to Zombie Studies) by Kyle William Bishop (Paperback)

About the Book

"Zombies have become allegorical figures embodying cultural anxieties, but they also serve as models for concepts in economics, political theory, neuroscience, psychology, computer science and astronomy. This critical examination of the 21st century zombie phenomenon explores how and why the public imagination has been overrun by the undead horde"--

Book Synopsis

Since the early 2000s, popular culture has experienced a "Zombie Renaissance," beginning in film and expanding into books, television, video games, theatre productions, phone apps, collectibles and toys. Zombies have become allegorical figures embodying cultural anxieties, but they also serve as models for concepts in economics, political theory, neuroscience, psychology, computer science and astronomy. They are powerful, multifarious metaphors representing fears of contagion and doom but also isolation and abandonment, as well as troubling aspects of human cruelty, public spectacle and abusive relationships. This critical examination of the 21st-century zombie phenomenon explores how and why the public imagination has been overrun by the undead horde.

Review Quotes

"explores the renaissance of zombie pop culture in the 21st century"-Communications Booknotes Quarterly; "[Bishop's] work surpasses the expected and moves into the exceptional...does not disappoint. Bishop takes care in his writing to ensure that even dense and narrow subject matter is explained...an enjoyable read...a necessary book [for] the zombie scholar's shelf"-Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts.

About the Author

Kyle William Bishop is a professor of English and film studies and serves as the English department chair at Southern Utah University in Cedar City, Utah. He has presented and published on a number of zombie-related texts and has authored two monographs with McFarland.