The Walking Dead

Los atentados del 11 de septiembre abren la puerta a la sociedad del riesgo. Una sensación de amenaza que es aprovechada para justificar el encumbramiento de la Seguridad en detrimento de libertades y derechos. A este clima político y social no es ajena la ficción, que introduce en sus producciones de una forma más o menos explícita las convulsiones de la actualidad. Este hecho, unido al que las series de televisión norteamericana estén viviendo un momento dulce en su Tercera Edad Dorada, hace que sean un interesante objeto de análisis sobre la propagación de la sensación del miedo. Un reflejo de la realidad que llega incluso a las apuestas más alegóricas como las referentes al mundo postapocalíptico. En este sentido, el análisis se centra en uno de los éxitos más sonados de la televisión por cable: el holocausto zombi narrado en The Walking Dead. Un estudio centrado en cómo la dimensión siniestra construye un entorno ultraviolento sin salida, marcado por un enemigo incierto que lleva al grupo a apostar por la supervivencia. Fruto de ello, la nueva sociedad es representada en base a unos clichés conservadores que justifican el sometimiento de derechos y libertades en torno a una defensa capitaneada por hombres viriles y fuertes. Una metáfora de la supremacía de la Seguridad que estamos viviendo en los últimos años.

S’il est un phénomène incontestable de la première décennie du XXIe siècle, c’est bien celui de la massification de la diffusion en temps réel d’images apocalyptiques. Or, il se pourrait que l’esprit ne sorte pas indemne d’une telle exposition ou surexposition aux horreurs du monde. Pourtant, comme s’il ne nous suffisait pas de voir ces images constamment dans les médias, nous les recherchons dans les fictions audiovisuelles que nous choisissons de regarder. Plutôt que d’expliquer ce fait par un goût malsain et morbide, on peut proposer d’y voir la quête d’une manière de supporter cette surexposition médiatique à l’horreur. En effet, de même qu’Aristote reconnaissait aux images le pouvoir de nous instruire en nous permettant d’observer ce que nous ne pourrions regarder sans danger ou dégoût en réalité, et aux fictions le pouvoir de nous donner une présentation plus philosophique des événements que l’histoire (Aristote), je ferai l’hypothèse que les films ou les séries télévisées apocalyptiques, comme les œuvres audiovisuelles qui relèvent de l’horreur épidémique, nous permettent de mieux comprendre nos craintes pour mieux nous préparer à affronter les tragédies que nous aurons malheureusement encore à vivre dans les temps à venir. Cependant, ce pouvoir prophylactique ne peut s’exercer qu’à condition d’échapper à « l’effet de choc » (Benjamin) que ces images, même fictionnelles, peuvent avoir sur nous, qu’à condition, autrement dit, de parvenir à « retrouver l’usage de notre expérience dans le monde de la culture de masse » (Warshow). Pour cela, je m’appuierai essentiellement, mais pas seulement, sur l’œuvre audiovisuelle post-apocalyptique la plus populaire du moment, à savoir la série télévisée de la chaîne AMC adaptée des comics de Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore et Charlie Adlard : The Walking Dead (2010-).

Abstract
Zombies have exploded their fictional boundaries in what is essentially a return to their supposed beginning in social reality. These horror icons have changed through their various manifestations in film, fiction and media, however, becoming more than just metaphor for capitalism or social conservatism. Although clear connections exist between the collective symbolism of zombies and movements such as the Occupy protests or on the other hand between zombie annihilation fantasies and colonial history, no single metaphorical interpretation seems able to contain the zombie phenomenon. They have become a powerful social technology capable of creating and dismantling meaning. This ability to simultaneously construct and destroy make zombies a powerful tool in deciphering individual transformations in post-apocalyptic fictional worlds and also a key influence in forging links between those transformations and real social change. In this chapter I argue that zombies are the same kind of ‘meaning machines’ J. Jack Halberstam discussed when she attempted to revise the definition of Gothic horror in her book Skin Shows. Via Kristevian abjection, I also explain why it is important that the Romero zombie has become the dominant cultural manifestation of this particular monster. Ultimately I examine the role the technology of the zombie plays in physically re-mapping human bodies in the post-apocalypse and do this through a sustained analysis of the AMC series The Walking Dead. I find these cartographies often transgress the boundaries of the fictional worlds they manifest in and establish themselves directly in our own social reality; this is best revealed by a sustained consideration of Afro-Orientalism as political alliance between the characters in the same television series. Finally, in attempting to demonstrate the function of zombies in these processes, I discuss unexpected but potentially important connections to the field of critical posthumanism – ending on the strange subject of zombie sexuality.

This chapter appears in the book Imagining the End: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Apocalypse, Inter-disciplinary Press, 2015. Jeremy R. Strong and Thomas E. Bishop, eds.
Please find the full volume here:  http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/publishing/product/imagining-the-end-interdisciplinary-perspectives-on-the-apocalypse/

When I first began hearing ghost stories at ETSU, I realized something: the undead are bridges. The undead – those ephemeral beings in their multiple variations – are bridges between the seen and the invisible, the known and the unknown, the understood and the unexplained, mystery and science. A ghost tale can hold us together in the communal bliss of fear around a campfire. They can also pit us against one another. The undead are simultaneously the persons they used to be, as well as the apparitions they are now. They connect the past with the present. They – like the past – are dead, but very much alive in the present as they haunt places and people. They are somewhere “in-between,” having never completely crossed the threshold into whatever lies beyond. I realized my autoethnographic work is similarly haunted. Ghosts haunt the narrative and autoethnographic work of others too. Haunting, however, is not one-sided. Autoethnographers are not only haunted; they haunt as well.

[You can download a Sample of the book in Palgrave website: https://he.palgrave.com/resources/sample-chapters/9781137568847_sample.pdf]

This book examines the role of emotions in contemporary TV series. Over the past 20 years, TV fiction has become one of the most powerful and influential trends in popular culture. Shows such as Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, Lost and The Wire have created a vigorous televisual landscape where innovations in narrative form, aesthetic engagement and ethical concerns have raised TV entertainment to new heights. What makes this volume unique is its interdisciplinary approach, as the series are analysed from the perspective of Television Studies, Literature, Sociology, Philosophy and Media Studies. Key concepts developed include the relation between moral emotion and character identification, how serial narrative builds into 'affective moments' as a distinctive mode of aesthetic experience, the politics of emotion in collective identities, the intersection of gender and emotions, and how popular genres such as terror films, the thriller and science fiction manage the 'emotional turn' that postmodernism has made visible.

El presente texto se ocupa del estudio sobre el fenómeno transmedia como estrategia de comunicación propia de la cultura de convergencia, el cual comprende un conjunto de relaciones intertextuales de órdenes no sólo semiótico- narrativos, sino también antropológicos.
Todo esto a partir de dos objetivos: primero, el de presentar una noción marco a la que denominamos Sistemas Intertextuales Transmedia (SIT), que surge después de realizar una breve arqueología del concepto; y el segundo, el de estudiar un caso exitoso para la industria del entretenimiento como lo es el universo narrativo propuesto por la serie de televisión The Walking Dead, con el fin de establecer claves que sirvan no sólo para el análisis de estrategias transmedia sino también para la construcción de éstas.

Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 25.2-3 (2014): 295-313.


In the West, property and the “human” are knotted. If posthumanism is about decentering the human, it would of necessity involve untying that knot. Reading George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978), and Land of the Dead (2005), along with Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead (2003 – present), this essay argues that zombies allegorize the “multitude” of the propertyless, as Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri put it. They relentlessly threaten both property and the “human” that is predicated on it. Bound up in this foundational thematic of zombie narrative, though, is the survivors’ response to the zombies’ deterritorializing threat: they retrench, assert ownership of territory through bodily labor, and then engage in internecine struggles in property’s defense. Indeed, the more the survivors seek to hold on to what is “human” through securing land and property at any cost, the more they themselves become monstrous.

This article offers a new version of the evolving subjectivity of The Walking Dead. It argues that the series presents an alternative to a fleshless posthumanism which imagines a mind free of corporeal encumbrances. Reading the walkers of The Walking Dead as the “dying undead”, sentient creatures who are distinctly not (yet) dead, I claims that they embody the fundamental materiality of human consciousness; that they mark the biological as thoroughly constitutive of the human.

La presente investigación gira en torno al impacto del Post 11S en las ficciones enmarcadas en la Tercera Edad Dorada de la televisión estadounidense, con especial atención al caso de Perdidos (Lost, ABC, 2004-2010). El estudio tiene dos grandes partes. Por un lado, un acercamiento a la producción y audiencia de la serie a través de un estudio documental, deteniéndonos en su narración transmedia y el juego entre creadores y los llamados prosumidores. Por otro, a través del Análisis de Contenido, se detectan mensajes que, de forma explícita o latente, hacen referencias a valores o ideas sociopolíticas. Principalmente a aquellas relacionadas con las consecuencias de los atentados del 11S en torno a dos dimensiones: la Cultura del Miedo y el Conservadurismo. A partir de aquí, el estudio se amplía a Breaking Bad (AMC, 2008-2013), The Walking Dead (AMC, 2010 ) y a otras 33 producciones contemporáneas para detectar patrones y rupturas. Todo ello bajo el amparo de tres paraguas teóricos fundamentales para comprender estos productos culturales como son los Estudios Culturales, la Economía Política de la Comunicación y la Cultura y la Teoría Crítica Feminista.
The current investigation resolves around the Post 9/11 attacks on the fictions framed in the American Television's Third Golden Age, with special attention to Lost (ABC, 2004-2010). This research comprises two parts. On the one hand, an approach to the Lost production and audience, though a desk study. Special emphasis is being placed on transmedia storytelling and the game between the creative team and the so-called prosumers. On the other hand, using Content Analysis, explicit or latent messages referring to sociopolitical ideas or values are detected. Primarily this involves those that are related to the consequences of Post 9/11 attacks: The Culture of Fear and the Conservatism. Beyond that, this survey takes a closer look to Breaking Bad (AMC, 2008-2013), The Walking Dead (AMC, 2010 ) and another 33 contemporary productions in order to detect possible patterns or breaking points. All of this is analyzed under three theories that are essential in understanding the cultural products: Cultural Studies; Political Economy of Communication and Culture and the Feminist Theories.

Dieses Heft möchte einen Überblick über aktuelle Ansätze der Serien- und Serialitätsforschung geben sowie didaktische Ansatzpunkte und Zugänge für den Deutschunterricht aufzeigen. Im Fokus steht zum einen die Frage, welche historischen und gegenwärtigen Formen des – auch medienübergreifenden – seriellen Erzählens existieren und wie sich diese beschreiben und analysieren lassen. Zum anderen stellt sich die Frage nach der Serienrezeption: Welche besonderen Anforderungen stellen serielle Narrationen an ihre Rezipienten, welche spezifischen Nutzungsformen und Rezeptionsmodalitäten entwickeln sich und welches didaktische Potenzial lässt sich im Hinblick auf Serienrezeption formulieren? Mit Beiträgen von Vincent Fröhlich, Daniela Schlütz, Carola Surkamp, Johanna Richter, Willem Strank und Arno Meteling.

In this essay, I focus my attention on the survivors of the zombie apocalypse, rather than the sociocultural implications of the zombies themselves. It is the life-and-death choices of the survivors and what these characters specifically choose to cull from their recent pasts in the rebuilding of a new post-apocalyptic civilization that I find most interesting. What worlds are constructed after the initial attack that brings on the zombie apocalypse? What power dynamics continue? Does Western hegemony continue? I choose to stay within the sphere of contemporary zombie horror because I believe it remains pregnant with opportunities to explore modern race and gender relations, for Kim Paffenroth insists that zombie movies are deeply psychological dramas, that “the real enemy is the group, with the fear and ignorance that tears them apart and sets them against one another.” Finally, this particular piece focuses on the intricacies of the construction of black female survivors within contemporary zombie texts, reading their experiences within the context of black feminist theory. I begin with a retracing of the critical work that has been done on gender and race within the genre of horror itself, later focusing on the subgenre of zombie horror texts.

A growing literature is emerging on the connection between Popular Culture and International Relations. Within the first camp, Zombies have experienced in the past decade a sort of renaissance, as witnessed by the burgeoning rise of Zombie-related artifacts, like movies, novels, videogames, social events, and TV shows. For the purposes of the current analysis, the main feature of the Zombie narrative is that most, if not all representations of the genre depict a post-apocalyptic scenario, where security is constantly endangered and political institutions have dissolved. In this world, issues of life and death are the main concern for any actor, both individually and collectively. As a result, the use of violence and the practice of conflict acquire a different meaning compared to real life. Such a difference gives us the opportunity to speculate on war and warfare as they are depicted in a counter-factual world. In this paper we will take AMC's TV series The Walking Dead and its portrayal of warlike events with a view to spell out the social meanings of war and, equally relevant, how the practice of war changes accordingly.

Las teleseries actuales tienen una incidencia en la sociedad que las consume que no tienen otras ficciones audiovisuales de menor duración y éxito. Este artículo utiliza la teoría de los imaginarios sociales para hacer emerger el modo en que la teleserie The Walking Dead invita a imaginar lo humano a través de una nueva característica de los supervivientes: la de estar infectados. Esta condición muestra cómo dicha ficción televisiva introduce, aunque sea a través de imágenes inconscientes, ciertas aportaciones hechas por la antropología filosófica contemporánea, en un intento de defensa de la diferencia de lo humano.

La televisión es una de las instituciones socializadoras fundamentales. Sus producciones, impregnadas de elementos contextuales, toman parte activa en la construcción simbólica de la realidad a través de sus informaciones y ficciones. Justamente estas últimas viven hoy en día un momento de esplendor en torno al quality drama estadounidense. Unas narraciones que, en forma de alegoría, continúan (re)produciendo mayoritariamente espacios de vulnerabilidad en el que se refuerza la posición subsidiaria de las mujeres. Por ello, el presente texto se centra en el estudio de la reproducción de las lógicas de dominación patriarcales en tres grandes éxitos comerciales: Breaking Bad, Hijos de la Anarquía y The Walking Dead. Bajo el paraguas de la teoría crítica feminista, se realiza un análisis de la construcción de los principales personajes en torno a sus roles y espacios, prestando especial atención a la evolución de cada uno de ellos.

This paper describes the assembling of a taxonomy of 'zombie space', consisting of categories of fictional urban space drawn from zombie films and other expressions of a living dead 'mythos', and presents a provisional set of these categories. The paper places this assembling in the context of the use of taxonomies in alternative ambulatory practices such as the Dadaist de-ambulation, the situationist dérive, and contemporary 'walking as art' practices. It concludes by describing the problems, specifically the paucity of theoretical detail and the lack of practical models, faced in the deployment of such a taxonomy when moving beyond an observational or experiential walk to one that is part of the construction of 'situations'.

This  study  explores  accounts  of  the  revenant,  the  walking  dead  in  medieval Britain through the concept of a failure in the ritual process that surrounded death. This concept is used to explore the rituals leading to, surrounding, and following death, as well as the consequences of their perceived failure. The study of folklore and supernatural beliefs provides a unique insight into the perception of the failed ritual process of death and its consequences, as well as how the community dealt with them. Thus the nature of the revenant and the conditions that lead to its existence as a consequence of a ritual failure will be explored. It is identified as a stagnated presence, divorced from its ritual context, with no foreseeable end. The revenant threatens the community as a whole, be it through physical violence or contagion; it needs to be excised to protect the
community and its members.

This article presents a deep analysis of the Zombie revival (lead by HBO’s The Walking Dead) of those last years. Starting from the Catholic’s “expecto resurrectionem mortuorum” and through the categories of modern political philosophy, the author makes a comparison between the imaginary of the “ones who waits” and the reality of a post-zombie world where the Hobbesian state of nature rules over individuals and morality.

Rooted in sociocultural theory, this paper utilizes a conceptual framework derived from Alexander, Schallert, and Reynolds' four topographical dimensions of learning; who of learning, what of learning, where of learning, and when of learning. Situated learning (Lave and Wenger) is presented as a fifth dimension to address how learning occurs in communities of practice absent of formal schooling. Content analysis (Elo and Kyngass) is used to analyze a teaching and learning event from an episode of The Walking Dead based on the five topographical dimensions of learning listed above. In the discussion section, findings are generalized to educational practice by specifically addressing the role of contextualized situated learning in curricular and pedagogical design, scaffolding within situated learning activities, the importance of gender equity in the classroom, and the potential benefits of promoting student development through authentic high stress-high risk tasks.

Toda distopía es susceptible de ser analizada desde el punto de vista de la Historia. Se puede analizar cómo se pasa de la sociedad "actual" a la sociedad distópica. En todos los casos tiene lugar un suceso traumático -ya sea un apocalipsis zombie (Guerra Mundial Z), el fin de los recursos (Mad Max) o una guerra (Los juegos del hambre)-. La mayoría de las distopías pasan de puntillas sobre el tema, pero en otras el protagonista indaga sobre el pasado y allí descubre elementos que tienen consecuencias sobre el presente -por ejemplo, el famoso distrito 13 de Los juegos del Hambre-.

This article uses Pedro Valencia's play Con Z de zombie (2013) to theorize the Mexican drug war through the lens of the zombie apocalypse. As the play's title shows, Valencia asserts a connection between zombies and drug traffickers; indeed, the entire play allegorically critiques the ideologies of the drug war and advocates for sincere dialogue between narcos, civilians, and the state. The playwright employs theatrical techniques that challenge biopolitical constructs that have kept different segments of society apart from each other since the war began. Building on the work of Roberto Esposito, who argues that modern states aim to " immunize " individuals against the excesses of " dangerous communities, " I assert that the three characters of this play represent different segments of society that have come into conflict with each other as a result of the drug war. Valencia asserts that this divisions undermines any attempts at peace when his human characters befriend a zombie who has regained consciousness. These characters soon learn that they can only successfully navigate the zombie apocalypse if they work together. At an allegorical level, then, the play asserts that the state must facilitate a communion between (repentant) narcos, civilians, and the military if it wishes to mediate drug violence in the country. Pedro Valencia's play Con Z de zombie (2013) uses the backdrop of a worldwide zombie apocalypse as an allegory for contemporary Mexican drug violence. The story is set in the nation's capital, which has generally avoided the effects of organized crime that has plagued

Nell’ultimo decennio i morti viventi hanno invaso le tavole dei fumetti, le pagine di libri e riviste, e, gli schermi, cinematografici, televisivi, ma anche dei monitor, degli smartphone e dei tablet. Nessun terreno mediale è rimasto immune dal contagio; una vera e propria meta-invasione transmediale di cui si tenterà di tracciare alcune coordinate nelle prossime pagine, avendo come punto di riferimento alcune opere mediali significative per questo filone; soprattutto, l’universo di The Walking Dead. Il termine universo non è usato a caso: The Walking Dead nasce nell’ottobre del 2003 come fumetto a opera di Robert Kirkman, per poi diventare sette anni più tardi una delle serie televisive di maggiore successo degli ultimi anni. Il mosaico mediale di The Walking Dead è in continuo divenire e i tasselli che lo compongono sono numerosi: un talk show televisivo, The Talking Dead, in cui gli ospiti commentano gli episodi della serie subito dopo la loro messa in onda; numerosi videogame, di cui alcuni – quelli prodotti dalla Telltale Game – hanno ottenuto un grande successo di pubblico e critica; una serie di romanzi dedicata a uno dei personaggi cardine della terza e quarta stagione della serie televisiva, il Governatore. Inoltre, è in fase di produzione uno spin-off con una linea narrativa diversa da quella principale, con personaggi e ambientazioni differenti, al punto tale che gli autori precisano che non si dovrebbe parlare di spin-off, ma di un’altra serie televisiva ambientata nello stesso mondo. Da qui si rafforza l’idea che ci troviamo di fronte a un vero e proprio universo narrativo che fa da cornice a prodotti mediali di varia natura. Il Big Bang dell’universo di The Walking Dead non è improvviso, esso è piuttosto il portato, da un lato, di una tradizione cinematografica, quella inaugurata e tuttora portata avanti da George A. Romero, profondamente sedimentata nell’immaginario collettivo, e, dall’altro, di una temperie sociale e culturale che ha ridato linfa vitale alla figura dello zombi, messa in secondo piano dopo i fasti cinematografici degli anni ’70 e ‘80. Non a caso, nella recente letteratura accademica e mediologica sul tema, si sta facendo strada l’idea che l’era attuale siano definibile come l’epoca della “Zombi Renaissance”: “We are currently experiencing a global explosion of zombie mania, with zombie representations and zombie-related material infiltrating the media and contemporary society in multiple and changing forms” (Hubner Leaning e Manning, 2014). L’universo di The Walking Dead, con gli ascolti da record della serie televisiva e le sue varie diversificazioni mediali, rappresenta probabilmente l’epitome della Zombi Renaissance.

Las series de televisión norteamericanas viven un momento de esplendor gracias a la
apuesta por la calidad y por su capacidad innovadora. Pero ¿llegan esos aires de cambio
a la representación de las relaciones de poder en el seno familiar? Esta es una de las
preguntas que marcan este análisis del drama The Walking Dead (AMC, 2010–): una
producción perteneciente al género postapocalíptico zombi heredera de esa obsesión
por la seguridad tras los atentados de aquel 11 de Septiembre. El presente artículo es
una investigación a través de las teorías feministas que demuestra como el sistema de
sexo-género se reproduce mediante esa enrocada imagen que atribuye al hombre el
rol de producción y defensa mientras que las mujeres quedan atrapadas en la esfera
de lo privado. Roles y estereotipos que nos ayudan a construir una imagen de nuestro
mundo a través de la pequeña pantalla.


American television series are currently experiencing a new golden era, thanks to
their commitment to quality and innovation. But, is this television renaissance impacting
the representation of power relations within the family institution? This is
one of the questions which centre the present analysis of The Walking Dead (AMC,
2010), a post-apocalypse zombie drama that shows the world’s obsession with issues
of security in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. This study investigates how gender
roles in mass media are still based on a binary system that places men as those in charge of security, production and the public space, while women are relegated to the
private sphere. The small screen creates and promotes roles and stereotypes which
help us build our world.

The purpose of the article is to show how video games can make their players feel, think, and reflect on their own actions and choices. Due to its participatory nature, a video game narrative evokes a personalised emotional response in the player, of a kind unprecedented in fiction. In the instant of Telltale’s fictional post-apocalypse The Walking Dead this personal emotional response primarily manifests itself in the feelings of discomfort and personal responsibility.

Cette contribution se propose de procéder à une étude de cas d'une vidéo recombinante (found footage), Alain Soral sauve Glenn et Tara dans The Walking Dead, postée sur YouTube en mars 2016. Nous montrerons qu'il s'agit, à partir d'images de la série télévisée The Walking Dead, d'autres tirées d'un film de propagande pro-Soral et le thème musical du catcheur John Cena, de recréer une nouvelle unité de sens subjective et militante représentative de l'imaginaire conspirationnisme d'Alain Soral. Surtout, par ses usages, cette vidéo nous semble typique du phénomène des vidéos recombinantes qui s'inscrit dans le tournant vidéo du médiactivisme du début des années 2000.

This paper aims to realize a case study of a found footage video, Alain Soral sauve Glenn et Tara dans The Walking Dead, posted on YouTube in march 2016. I argue this video, through footage sacked from the TV show The Walking Dead and a Soral's propaganda movie supported by John Cena's music, creates a new subjective and militant unity of sense that represents symbolically and aesthetically Soral's conspiracist imaginary. By its uses, this video looks typical of the found footage phenomenon which participates of the early 2000's video watershed of mediactivism.

As transmedia franchises increasingly populate our cultural environment, many questions arise about the effect of the different media involved in the depiction of storyworlds. Through the analysis of different examples, with special emphasis on the particular case of The Walking Dead, and drawing primarily from Henry Jenkins’s concept of “transmedia storytelling” and Jens Schröter’s concept of intermediality, this paper aims to show how different media aesthetics contribute to the process of storytelling and enrich the experience of the consumer. Usually overlooked in other analyses, we argue that these formal and aesthetical characteristics, such as the interactive nature of video games, call for a broader approach that transcends the accustomed search of common narrative aspects. This will be exemplified by a closer comparative look at the adventure game The Walking Dead: The Game (Telltale Games, 2012) and The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct (Terminal Reality, 2013). The transformations that the different media demand contribute not only to the narrative, but also provide different tools for the construction of storyworlds and different ways to engage with it.

Abstract
The present article applies post-phenomenological communitarian theory to the 2010 AMT TV series The Walking Dead , with occasional references to the original comic book written by Robert Kirkman (2003-ongoing) and the two webseries directed by Greg Nicotero in 2011 and 2012. Following the theoretical tenets of Jean-Luc Nancy and Maurice Blanchot, among other critics, this essay aims to connect the zombie metaphor with communitarian notions. The starting point is the contrast between operative communities that crave for the immanence of a shared communion and substantiate themselves in the essentialist tropes of nation, blood, and/or race, and inoperative communities that reject communal and essential immanence and are characterized by transimmanence, an ontological condition of being related to something or someone other than but also part of ourselves. Aspects like the Blanchotian secret, auto-immunity, self-destruction, or contagion are central to understanding the link between the zombie metaphor and communitarian theory. The Walking Dead recreates a communitarian dialogue that constantly revises and problematizes Lévinas’ absolute alterity and proves highly illustrative in communitarian terms.

Resumen
El presente artículo aplica teorías comunitarias post-fenomenológicas a la serie de AMT The Walking Dead (2010-),  con referencias ocasionales a la novela gráfica original escrita por Robert Kirkman (2003-) y a las dos webseries dirigidas por Greg Nicotero en 2011 y 2012. Siguiendo los presupuestos teóricos de Jean-Luc Nancy y Maurice Blanchot, entre otros críticos, el presente ensayo pretende conectar la metáfora zombi con nociones comunitarias. El punto de partida es el contraste entre comunidades operativas —que buscan la inmanencia de la comunión de sus miembros integrantes y se sustancian en los tropos esencialistas de la nación, la sangre y la raza— y comunidades inoperativas —que rechazan la inmanencia esencialista y se caracterizan por la trans-inmanencia, una condición ontológica que implica una conexión con algo o alguien externo a nosotros, pero al mismo tiempo parte constituyente de nuestro ser. Aspectos como el secreto blanchotiano, la auto-inmunidad, la auto-destrucción o el contagio son centrales para entender el vínculo entre la metáfora zombi y la teoría comunitaria. The Walking Dead recrea un diálogo comunitario que constantemente revisa y problematiza la alteridad absoluta de Lévinas, que demuestra ser altamente ilustrativa en términos comunitarios.

Keywords: Walking Dead, zombie metaphor, transimmanence, community, auto-immunity, contagion

Palabras clave: Walking Dead, metáfora zombi, trans-inmanencia, comunidad, auto-inmunidad, contagio

Contemporary TV series are having a great success and influence in our postmodern societies. The zombie phenomenon is getting everyday bigger audiences as well. Perhaps, this is the reason why the number of TV series about zombies is also growing. This paper uses the theory of social imagi-naries to show the manner in which one of these before mentioned media products, the series The Walking Dead, invites us to picture or imagine the human through a new characteristic of the survivors: that of being infec-1 orcid.org/0000-0001-9687-3057. Universitat Abat Oliba CEU. España. [email protected]

Taking a look at two contemporary TV series, The Walking Dead and Survivors, this article argues that the recent revival of post-apocalyptic fiction relies on the appropriation of empty and fragmented spaces, which function as subtle vehicles of ideologies such as discourses of security, bodily integrity and the neoliberal politics of late capitalism in Western societies. The visual representation of abandoned spaces and the rebuilding of a spatial order that has the characters following a nomad-like existence both historicise and renormalize the moral dilemmas of the post-apocalypse not only by offering a powerful social commentary of what it means to (re-)connect with a changed environment but also through seemingly rendering the catastrophe a familiar phenomenon.

In this paper I have attempted to illustrate how we can see "IR theory"  in action in everyday popular culture. By taking some key arguments from Alexander Wendt's "Anarchy is What States Make of It" to the realm of a zombie apocalypse, we can understand how realist assumptions about self-help are the product of an intersubjective process of threat perception and identity formation. Paper submitted for the Theory of International Relations course part of the IR/IO BA at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Grade: 8,0

This paper is based on “Haraway’s Curiosity and Derrida’s Shame, the Radical Alterity of Cats,” plenary panel, SUNY Buffalo’s Comparative Literature Department’s Graduate Conference, “animal.machine.sovereign,” Buffalo, NY; April 2011. I use this paper in my Introduction to Ethics courses and Introduction to Philosophy courses.

Las tesis de Ulrich Beck cobran más vida que nunca tras
los atentados del 11 de septiembre de 2011. Pues, tras ellos, se abre la
puerta a ese discurso que encumbra la Seguridad por encima de
Derechos y Libertades basándose en el riesgo. Una sociedad que teme
volver a ser atacada por un enemigo incierto dibujado a golpe de
estereotipos a través de alegatos políticos y de representaciones
mediáticas. En este segundo escenario es en el que se mueve la
presente investigación, que analiza cómo la ficción televisiva, en un
momento dulce en su Tercera Edad Dorada, refleja esta sensación de
miedo surgida tras los ataques. Para ello se hace uso de dos dramas de
la televisión por cable de EEUU con diferente apego a la realidad.
Por un lado, la vuelta a la paranoia terrorista de Homeland y, por
otro, el holocausto zombi desarrollado en The Walking Dead.

This is the second volume of the History of Tv series, that goes from 2000 to today. It deals with both Italian and American Tv series (it has also a chapter on series in UK). It arrives to today: the explosion of Netflix, the Tv series in Amazon and Dinsy+, and the opening of Italian Tv series to the International market with series like Medici, My Brilliant Friend, and Leonardo