Zombies occur in and arise from history: this is the essence of the two courses I teach: “Zombies!” and “Zombies and Other Monsters: Fact and Fiction.” The contributions of Professor Derrick Brazill (chair of the Hunter Biology Department), who co-teaches the latter course, are of course invaluable, but my interdisciplinary focus on zombies as fictional constructs remains the same. After an introduction that sets out some of the important issues to be explored throughout the semester (e.g., Monster Theory, race, gender, colonialism and postcolonialism, etc.), the material is organized chronologically, linking zombie “boom periods” to changes in types of zombies, from “field slaves” to “viral,” which correlate with periods of cultural crises, from the U.S. occupation of Haiti to the AIDs epidemic – and beyond. Zombie texts covered in class range from episodes of early radio shows (The Shadow) and video games (Resident Evil) to films (White Zombie) to fiction (World War Z), all situated historically. This presentation will review some of the issues and options for teaching zombies, with my own courses as starting points for discussion.
About the presenterSylvia Tomasch
Sylvia Tomasch is a professor of English at Hunter College (CUNY), whose specialization is medieval literature. Zombies are a recent interest, following her earlier work on otherness in the Middle Ages.