Carol Rifelj Faculty Lecture Series: Decolonizing Global Zombie Cinema

Patricia Saldarriaga, Department of Luso-Hispanic Studies, will give a talk as part of the 2020-21 Carol Rifelj Faculty Lecture Series.

Zombies were created from the folklore related to voodoo practices in Latin America and the Caribbean and modernized in the US during the civil unrest of the 60s. Throughout history, these creatures have been used to express anxiety about slavery, capitalism, and all kinds of affects in contemporary society such as fear of global ecological catastrophes, multitudes, and modernity in general. Zombies at times are used to express the monstrification of the other based on race, disability, gender, poverty among other categories. However, in some films, they are used to represent the evils of globalism, imperialism and capitalism that are visited upon marginalized communities.My project studies zombie films within the frame of necropolitics, gore capitalism, queer temporalities and crip theory. I hope to show that modern zombie cinema is being used to decolonize big narratives such as history, religion, capitalism, and biopolitics.

Register in advance:

https://middlebury.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUtcuuoqjspG9w5tNGaPc4Yx81v0mfqaGXY