Transnational Zombie Cinema, 2010 to 2020: Readings in a Mutating Tradition examines selected films produced outside the United States in the second decade of the millennial zombie renaissance, following the global effects of the Great Recession. These readings analyze how the films adapt the zombie myth to localized anxieties pertaining to neoliberal capitalism; globalization; gender and sexuality; national identity, history, and trauma; and self-definition within and without culture and social institutions. In tracing these variations, John R. Ziegler investigates not only better-known films such as South Korea's Train to Busan (2016) and Cuba's Juan of the Dead (2011) but also lesser-known examples such as Malaysia's KL24: Zombies (2017), Italy's The End? (2017), and India's Rise of the Zombie (2010). These films, Ziegler argues, demonstrate the continued significance of the zombie as a flexible, powerful tool for thinking about contemporary concerns across the globe and suggest that the zombie myth still has plenty of undead life in it as it continues to mutate and circulate in transnational cinema.
John R. Ziegler is professor of English at Bronx Community College, CUNY.
Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Part I: Mutations in Europe, Australia, and the Americas Chapter 1: Class and Capitalism, Take 1: Italy, England, and Cuba Chapter 2: Gender, Sex, and Family, Take 1: Belgium, Australia, and Germany Chapter 3: Race and Nation, Take 1: The United States, Canada, and Australia Chapter 4: Self, Society, and State, Take 1: France, Canada, and Ireland Part II: Mutations in Asia Chapter 5: Class and Capitalism, Take 2: Malaysia, South Korea, and the Philippines Chapter 6: Gender, Sex, and Family, Take 2: Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines Chapter 7: Race and Nation, Take 2: China, South Korea, and Japan Chapter 8: Self, Society, and State, Take 2: China, South Korea, and India Conclusion References Filmography About the Author
Transnational Zombie Cinema is as far-ranging as it is erudite. Ziegler has written a thoroughly engaging encounter with the all consuming undead that untangles the individual in the global and revels the transnational poetics of our (collective) zombie future. -- Simon Bacon, editor of The Evolution of Horror in the 21st Century, and Faith and the Zombie Transnational Zombie Cinema, 2010 to 2020: Readings in a Mutating Tradition is a must-own volume for zombie scholars and fans of horror movies everywhere. With excellent scholarship and a "deep dive" approach to lesser-known international zombie films, this work expands the corpus of significant zombie texts and scholarship. -- Kyle Bishop, Southern Utah University; author of The Written Dead
