Postracial fantasies, blackness, and zombies

The essay mainly performs a structural and formal analysis of the logics and affective economies of postracial fantasies so as to eventually offer the Zombie trope as a mode of analysis figuring alternative ways of thinking race relations. The essay contends that the Zombie, when articulated with di...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCommunication and critical/cultural studies Vol. 14; no. 4; pp. 317 - 333
Main Author King Watts, Eric
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Routledge 02.10.2017
Subjects
biopolitics
blackness
Postracial fantasies
racism
zombie apocalypse
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Summary:The essay mainly performs a structural and formal analysis of the logics and affective economies of postracial fantasies so as to eventually offer the Zombie trope as a mode of analysis figuring alternative ways of thinking race relations. The essay contends that the Zombie, when articulated with discourses and feelings of the postracial, signifies the unleashing of black bio-threat bodies upon a population; and that enjoyment of the postracial and the Zombie Apocalyptic genre obscures and resuscitates this signification. As a brief case study, the essay discusses the display, materiality, and "bloody" enjoyment of the "Zombie Obama" target mannequin by gun enthusiasts and preppers.
ISSN:1479-1420
1479-4233
DOI:10.1080/14791420.2017.1338742