Zombies as an Allegory for Terrorism: Understanding the Social Impact of Post-9/11 Security Theatre and the Existential Threat of Terrorism through the Work of Mira Grant

Abstract

This paper seeks to understand the impact upon society of “security theatre”: being the proliferation of security legislation and processes, particularly in the context of airport security screening. Security theatre is a response to the ongoing threat of terrorist attack without warning since September 11, 2001. While as lawyers we have a clear understanding of the laws have been put in place in response to these issues, we often have very little real grasp of how these laws impact society at large. Responses to social change are often first documented in popular literature. This paper seeks to explore the social impact of security theatre through examining bestselling popular literature that was intended as an allegory of these issues. Thus, the approach taken is to use such literature as a sociological text to provide insight into social responses. To that end Mira Grant’s apocalyptic Newsflesh trilogy and interviews with Grant about these topics within the books will be analysed and explored with a view to understanding the social impact of security theatre. My hope that we gain greater insight into the social perception of these issues, and the ability to view them from a different perspective.