The Zombie as a Mirror of Modern Mass Culture

Zombies were and still are one of the most important symbols of modern mass culture. The zombie discourse originated among African slaves brought to the sugar plantations in the Caribbean. In many ways, the narratives of the “living dead” were a reaction to the crisis phenomena of plantation life. This is evidenced by the rich comparative material presented on many peoples of the world. Such notions of invulnerability after formal death proved to be an important tool of resistance to new conditions caused by external threats. Termed “revitalization,” they were an important element of the Millennialist movements. While initially the sorcerers who could bring themselves back to life were central to these beliefs, in the following period the focus shifted to the victims of various manipulations, transformed into soulless beings. Leaving the environment of their original “habitat,” zombies took on a new life, occupying a firm place in modern mass culture. Having become a symbol of ruthless exploitation of man, relegated to the level of a machine appendage, zombies proved to be one of the most “productive” symbols. They reflected the main trends in the development of society and even began to function as instruments of philosophical reflection. All this allows us to consider zombies as an indicator of altered society, producing new “walking dead”. The metaphors associated with zombies allows us to conclude that the comprehension of zombies makes modern man begin to perceive them constructively, creating a new image, demonstrating the movement towards humanization.

From Romero to Romeo—Shakespeare’s Star-Crossed Lovers Meeting Zombedy in Jonathan Levine’s Warm Bodies

Since their first screen appearances in the 1930s, zombies have enjoyed immense cinematic popularity. Defined by Romero’s 1968 Night of the Living Dead as mindless, violent, decaying and infectious, they successfully function as ultimate fiends in horror films. Yet, even those morbid undead started evolving into more appealing, individualized and even sympathetic characters, especially when the comic potential of zombies is explored. To allow a zombie to become a romantic protagonist, however, one that can love and be loved by a human, another evolutionary step had to be taken, one fostered by a literary association. This paper analyzes Jonathan Levine’s Warm Bodies, a 2013 film adaptation of Isaac Marion’s zombie novel inspired by William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It examines how Shakespeare’s Romeo helps transform the already evolved cinematic zombie into a romantic protagonist, and how Shakespearean love tragedy, with its rich visual cinematic legacy, can successfully locate a zombie narrative in the romantic comedy convention. Presenting the case of Shakespeare intersecting the zombie horror tradition, this paper illustrates the synergic exchanges of literary icons and the cinematic monstrous.

Modernity and Burial Rituals in Igbo Land: A Paranormal Communication Approach

The Igbo people believe that a well done burial ritual would determine the well-being of the deceased in the land of the “living-dead”. It is therefore expected that their loved ones perform proper burial rituals to ensure the peaceful rest of the deceased and to avert the wrath of the dead. This study examined modernity and burial rituals in Igbo land from a paranormal communication perspective. The Functionalism approach as propounded by Smith, Burner and White in 1956 was used as the theoretical underpinning for this study. This study adopted textual analysis of historical and oral literature. The findings of this study revealed that modernity has affected the Igbo culture, and also showed that there are socio-religious consequences of not meeting up with the burial ritual demands. As a result, the researchers recommend amongst others that stakeholders in the community and the society at large come together to revive the Igbo culture. They also recommend that families do the needful to ensure that their 'dead' is properly buried to avoid certain misfortunes.

Preparation of Graphene Oxide-loaded Nickel with Excellent Antibacterial Property by Magnetic Field-Assisted Scanning Jet Electrodeposition

Graphene oxide (GO) is recognized as a promising antibacterial material that is expected to be used to prepare a new generation of high-efficiency antibacterial coatings. The propensity of GO to agglomeration makes it difficult to apply it effectively. A new method of preparing GO-loaded nickel (GNC) with excellent antibacterial property is proposed in this paper. In this work, GNC was prepared on a titanium sheet by magnetic field-assisted scanning jet electrodeposition. The massive introduction of GO on the coating was proven by energy disperse spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The antibacterial performance of GNC was proven by agar plate assessment and cell living/dead staining. The detection of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the concentration of nickel ions, indicate that the antibacterial property of GNC are not entirely derived from the nickel ions released by the coating and the intracellular ROS induced by nickel ions, but rather are due to the synergistic effect of nickel ions and GO.

Baudelaire's Creole Gothic : A Postcolonial Afterlife for Les Fleurs du mal

Baudelaire’s verse poetry is informed by a pervasive Creole Gothic resonance. Two separate but related topoi, the Undead and the Living Dead, lie at the heart of the collection’s necrological imaginary of slave and zombie labour. It is this Gothic double-trope of death-in-life/life-in-death that activates the Gothic Creole strain running through Les Fleurs du mal. Ironically, those poems that seem to evoke most directly the Creole world that Baudelaire encountered in 1841, firstly in Mauritius and then in Réunion, avoid all evocation of plantation slavery. Conversely, the city poems associate modern metropolitan life with the idea of slavery, representing it as a living death and death as a merely temporary and reversible escape. The collection’s representation of this ‘living death’ foreshadows the construction (by Orlando Patterson, most notably) of transatlantic chattel slavery as ‘social death’. As for the poetic representation of the ‘Undead’, this centres on the figure of the zombie. The zombie is essentially a slave for whom death has proved no guarantee against an endless ‘living death’ of hard labour. If the Creole inflection of Baudelaire’s imagery relates primarily to the realities of industrialized plantation labour and to the chattel slavery on which it was based, it is further reinforced by indices of tropical localisation and of racial difference, more specifically pigmentation. However subliminal its resonance, this Creole Gothic strain guarantees for Baudelaire’s Fleurs du mal a vivid postcolonial afterlife.

Still Life – Natura Morta: the landscapes of proximity

The social distancing does represent an oxymoron: how can there be distancing if what characterizes the very sociality is the proximity between individuals, and generally living beings? Comparable to living dead space (Todd R.W., 2007) or more notorious “still life” or “natura morta”, the paradox remains unsolved: how can something like nature that is impregnated with life, be dead?