TOWARDS THE END OF CIVILIZATION AND BACK: NEOLIBERALISM AS FORM IN COLSON WHITEHEAD’S ZONE ONE

Abstract

This article intends to present an investigation about the neoliberal matrix as a structuring element in the construction of the apocalypse narrative in Zone one (2011), by Colson Whitehead. Throughout the literary work, the reader follows the experience of a group of characters living in a post-civilization world in which the catastrophe came about through a virus that changes into living-dead those whom it infects. Our guiding objective is to propose a reading that ultimately shows a mirroring process between the idea of the end of civilization and civilization itself as understood in the molds of neoliberal practices. Keywords: Apocalypse. Neoliberalism. Zone One. Civilization. This article intends to present an investigation about the neoliberal matrix as a structuring element in the construction of the apocalypse narrative in Zone one (2011), by Colson Whitehead. Throughout the literary work, the reader follows the experience of a group of characters living in a post-civilization world in which the catastrophe came about through a virus that changes into living-dead those whom it infects. Our guiding objective is to propose a reading that ultimately shows a mirroring process between the idea of the end of civilization and civilization itself as understood in the molds of neoliberal practices.