Like it or not, zombies are becoming an increasingly common feature of global culture.
As they infiltrate the literary canon, scholars are reflecting on why these fictional figures, once shunned by authors, are now taking over – quite literally.
Jessica Murray suggests in ‘A Zombie Apocalypse: Opening Representational Spaces for Alternative Constructions of Gender and Sexuality’ that the reason behind this literary infestation of zombies is because they ‘offer rich possibilities for exploring alternative constructions of gender and sexuality’.
Post-apocalypse, social and ideological constructions are destroyed.
As a result, any survivors can recreate themselves both sexually and in terms of gender hierarchy.
With this in mind, the literary opportunities for representing alternative understandings of gender and sexuality in a post-apocalyptic world are rife.
So can zombie texts successfully destabilise gender and heteronormative power structures?
This is a question Murray seeks to answer by means of a feminist literary analysis of Lily Herne’s Deadlands (2011) and Death of a Saint (2012).
Read the full article online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02564718.2013.856659