The Walking Dead Live!: Essays on the Television Show Philip L.Simpson and MarcusMallard, Editors. Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.

Abstract

The Walking Dead Live!: Essays on Television Show Philip L. Simpson and Marcus Mallard, Editors. Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.One could hardly question rise in popularity of zombies in American culture in past decade: TV, literature, how-to guides, video games, graphic novels, feature films, zombie runs, and merchandise. The AMC network's hypersuccessful series The Walking Dead leads charge, and it has even produced a spin-off prequel, Fear Walking Dead. Analyses of zombies and accompanying apocalypse have evolved into a productive, interdisciplinary critique of American and global economics, psychology, sociology, philosophy, ecology, gender, and race. Although zombie has been and still is under analysis for its symbolic elements, critique is shifting toward us-for example, how are we like zombies? why are we so entranced by zombie narratives at this point in time? The last two seasons of The Walking Dead have attracted over seventeen and fourteen million viewers respectively (ix), and as series enters its Season Seven, volume and delivery of material to analyze are unique compared to individual films and literary texts. The Walking Dead Live!: Essays on Television Show, edited by Philip L. Simpson and Marcus Mallard, illustrates depth and breadth in which critical analysis has also evolved to parallel zombie's stature in American culture.The editors cite five other anthologies specific to The Walking Dead (series and graphic novels) and separate their anthology by [addressing] issues that have either not been raised yet ... or contribute to and expand upon ongoing conversations about specific story and subtextual elements (xi). The anthology is evenly divided into Part One, which centers on series's central conceits, philosophies, genre influences, and story elements (xii), and Part Two, which hones in on the survivors' quest to find a haven in which to rebuild human society (xii). Overall, collection serves as a useful spectrum of critical techniques applied to a television series that continues to evolve.The first essay, 'Zombies R Us': Twenty-First Century America and Historical Inquiry by Brad L. Duren, provides a general historical view of zombie in American culture and highlights importance of analyzing pop culture, and essay is well placed to offer readers new to zombie critique an entry point. A few of contributions are very specific to a particular theorist or approach, and these would be helpful to scholars or students looking for new critical applications. …