{"id":1409,"date":"2024-10-07T22:30:33","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T02:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/?p=1409"},"modified":"2024-10-07T22:30:33","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T02:30:33","slug":"the-biography-of-a-study-of-zombies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/2024\/10\/07\/the-biography-of-a-study-of-zombies\/","title":{"rendered":"The “Biography” of a Study of Zombies"},"content":{"rendered":"

(***After<\/em> writing all of this, I realize now that the blog post prompt is not nearly<\/em> as limiting as I first perceived\u2014but I hope that this contains enough substance regardless!)<\/p>\n

Author and professor Peter Dendle has produced a high volume of works surrounding the zombie and its history, including a chapter of <\/span>Monsters and the Monstrous <\/span><\/i>titled \u201cThe zombie as barometer of cultural anxiety.\u201d It considers the varied significance of the zombie in media, depending on location and time: and depending on what widespread cultural fears are present. Dendle possesses an extensive body of work on the zombie beyond this individual chapter, however, and demonstrates such variety that NPR has featured his work on zombies. I recently read it, so it was on the brain as a portion of my reading list I wanted to explore; though I struggled to find reviews on the author\u2019s work or biographies of the author, I wanted to evaluate some of the range of his work and how his previous writings form a sort of \u201cbiography\u201d of his study of the zombie.<\/span><\/p>\n

Included in his works is \u201cThe Zombie Movie Encyclopedia,\u201d an overview and analysis of over 200 zombie movies from 16 countries\u2014Amazon\u2019s description lists the book as the \u201cfirst exhaustive historical overview of zombie films\u201d (\u201cAmazon\u201d). Some similar material from this book is (rightfully) included in \u201cThe zombie as a barometer of cultural anxiety,\u201d including in-depth analyses of a number of Western zombie films. The film \u201cWhite Zombie,\u201d for instance, is discussed in detail as not only the first \u201czombie movie,\u201d but for its connections to the West African folklore that majorly shaped the composing of our contemporary concept of the zombie. Dendle highlights the use of the zombie as a laborer forcibly robbed of their soul and free will, specifically to work in a sugar cane factory (46). He moves in chronological order, additionally exploring Depression-era, wartime, Cold War, consumerist, and even September 11th 2001-adjacent zombie films. He does not assign solely one metaphor or symbol that the zombie stands for to each time period, instead exploring (as the films have) multiple avenues by which the zombie stands in for relevant cultural anxieties: for example, the movie <\/span>Ouanga <\/span><\/i>contains themes of labor as well as themes of race and slavery, both of which are explored by Dendle (47).<\/span><\/p>\n

Considering Dendle cites his book <\/span>The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia<\/span><\/i> within \u201cThe zombie as a barometer of cultural anxiety,\u201d their structural similarities make perfect sense. In both, Dendle uses chronological order of historical events, and his respective analyses of prominent anxieties that incorporate a number of secondary sources, to explain the popularity of selected zombie films and argue for the zombie as a method of exploring forms of dehumanization and the loss of individuality. In \u201cThe zombie as a barometer for cultural anxiety,\u201d he instead narrows his focus to Western zombie films, especially those that became particularly popular, explaining their popularity by relating \u201ccultural anxiety\u201d to the films\u2019 times of composition and release. <\/span>The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia <\/span><\/i>features a compilation of movies with objective information, such as the director, cast, and release date, then followed by Dendle\u2019s impressions and review of the film. His book chapter seems to condense the summary portion of these films, and perhaps expand upon the review and analysis portion\u2014a fitting choice in getting across his claim of the zombie as reflective of societal fears, for which an author <\/span>must <\/span><\/i>expand upon a multitude of analyses of a film.<\/span><\/p>\n

Peter Dendle\u2019s book and article even focus on similar time frames: around 1930 to 2000. The main difference in terms of chronology is that \u201cbarometer of cultural anxiety\u201d goes beyond the year 2000 into the most recent resurgences of zombie media, even briefly mentioning videogame franchises and their prominent role in the larger collection of zombie media. Reviews of <\/span>The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia <\/span><\/i>mention confusion regarding the exclusion of these more recent films or franchises from the book (\u201cGoodreads\u201d), leading me to wonder if there is some sort of connection between that exclusion and the following inclusion of 2000s-era zombie films in \u201cZombies as a barometer of cultural anxiety.\u201d This \u201coutdatedness\u201d is the most common complaint among reviewers, while the most common compliment is in favor of Dendle’s personal analyses of each film, and his lengthy introductory criticism and overview of zombie-history. This strength is what forms the basis of \u201ca barometer of cultural anxiety,\u201d allowing Dendle to expand upon selected films.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to reduce the book chapter to simply an offshoot of or response to the book, considering their multitude of differences and Dendle\u2019s extensive experience writing about zombies (and a large number of other popular \u201cmonsters\u201d). I am interested in the connections between these two works and how these connections speak to what each work aims to do: the book as a general overview linked closer with film-specific study, and the book chapter as a direct argument for the importance of the evolution of the \u201czombie.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAmazon.Com: Peter Dendle: Books.\u201d <\/span>Amazon.Com<\/span><\/i>, www.amazon.com\/Books-Peter-Dendle\/s?rh=n:283155,p_27:Peter+Dendle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dendle, Peter. “The zombie as barometer of cultural anxiety.” <\/span>Monsters and the Monstrous<\/span><\/i>. Brill, 2007. 45-557.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dendle, Peter. <\/span>The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia<\/span><\/i>. McFarland & Co., 2001.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Zombie Movie Encyclopedia.\u201d <\/span>Goodreads.Com<\/span><\/i>, Goodreads, www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/903305.The_Zombie_Movie_Encyclopedia.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(***After writing all of this, I realize now that the blog post prompt is not nearly as limiting as I first perceived\u2014but I hope that this contains enough substance regardless!) Author and professor Peter Dendle has produced a high volume of works surrounding the zombie and its history, including a chapter of Monsters and the … Continue reading The “Biography” of a Study of Zombies<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145914],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2024-blog-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}