Political Science

摘要

In the movie theater, on television, or maybe even in real life, zombies have crept into every facet of American culture. With roots in Haitian voodoo, the tree of zombie culture has grown into a great redwood. Many scholars have interpreted the zombie genre as engaging contemporary issues such as racial conflict, human evolution, and consumerism. A noteworthy recent contribution to the genre is Zombieland (2009), the highest grossing zombie movie in America. By combining a close reading of Zombieland with the academic literature on political disengagement, this paper argues that Zombieland offers a scathing indictment of the current state of American citizenship. Zombies in this film are a metaphor for political disinterest in America, a disinterest evidenced by statistics showing a decline in voting participation, shrinking of the sound bites in political advertisements, growing distrust of government and neighbors, and even increasing civic laziness. Zombieland thus presents America's greatest threat as the transformation of people into zombie-citizens.