What does the zombie mean, and why?
Coquelin, Lucile
What does the zombie mean, and why? - 2022.
91
In contemporary cultural productions, the zombie is characterized by a disturbance of the flesh and spirit whose semiotic features have not varied hugely since the films of George Romero, while the reasons for zombification diverge according to historical and social contexts. Our analysis of the series The Walking Dead starts from the hypothesis that the zombie, in this production, has a particular persistence which places it in the category of myth (according to the definition by Roland Barthes). This very long zombie film indefinitely delays the revelation of the causes of zombification—a lack of explanation that raises questions. The aim of the experiment in social semiotics presented in this article is not, however, to “decode” the reasons for the creation of the myth once and for all. In co-interpretation workshops organized in a pedagogical context, we collected interpretative hypotheses from the participants, but we were above all interested in the “interpretative filters” that motivated these hypotheses. The gradual ascent from the hypotheses toward these filters enabled us to observe the action of two major contemporary concerns: ecological collapse and migration.
What does the zombie mean, and why? - 2022.
91
In contemporary cultural productions, the zombie is characterized by a disturbance of the flesh and spirit whose semiotic features have not varied hugely since the films of George Romero, while the reasons for zombification diverge according to historical and social contexts. Our analysis of the series The Walking Dead starts from the hypothesis that the zombie, in this production, has a particular persistence which places it in the category of myth (according to the definition by Roland Barthes). This very long zombie film indefinitely delays the revelation of the causes of zombification—a lack of explanation that raises questions. The aim of the experiment in social semiotics presented in this article is not, however, to “decode” the reasons for the creation of the myth once and for all. In co-interpretation workshops organized in a pedagogical context, we collected interpretative hypotheses from the participants, but we were above all interested in the “interpretative filters” that motivated these hypotheses. The gradual ascent from the hypotheses toward these filters enabled us to observe the action of two major contemporary concerns: ecological collapse and migration.
Réseaux sociaux