Reading asgmts for next week, 4/14, 4/16 and 4/15, 4/17, with reading questions based on 3 articles

For next week's discussions of World War Z, please read the following:

For Mon., 4/14, pp. 187-269

For Wed., 4/16, pp. 270-342



For each session, please select at least 1 episode from the reading and be prepared to talk about it in relation to one of our running topics (see ZMatters blog Final assignment Option 2, 1-10).  

We also will consider the following issues raised in the 3 articles on World War Z and zombie apocalypse:

1.  Do you agree with Ahmad's argument that World War Z's zombie narrative articulates challenges to racism and to class privilege ("Gray is the New Black" 131)?  Cite examples from the novel.

2.  Do you agree with Rubin's assertion that the "Zombie War" as imagined in World War Z supports an idea of "regeneration through violence"?  Cite examples from the novel.  Consider the broader social and political implications of the concept.

3. Do you agree, following Rubin's and Stratton's arguments, that the zombie plague in World War Z resonates with the feared Others of 911 America, including "Terrorists" and immigrants?

4. Do you agree with Rubin's view that the "Zombie War" in World War Z replays the American "Frontier Myth" by which America imagines securing its national identity by way of extirpation or marginalization of a dangerous Other?  

5.  A broader question: is it possible to imagine an alternative track for society, a new world or a utopia, without postulating an enemy Other who must be destroyed?   Is regeneration by violence inherent, or is it, as Rubin argues, a pathological hangover of Western cultural formations and their holy wars and apocalypses?

6.  And to recall our original frame--what does World War Z do with the concept of work?  Old-school zombies were quasi-slaves ruled by masters; Romero zombies were mindless American consumers; what does the new-school World War Z zombie do to this scenario?  In the context of post-2000s late capitalism and its related economic and social tensions and crises, does Brooks' focus on work suggest different ideas and valuations about labor, bodies, and economics?

7.  Finally--in the post-2000s context of current daily-news horrors involving school shootings, military-base massacres, and high murder rates in major America cities, how does the zombie narrative play?  Does it implicitly endorse extreme violence as a valid solution to social tensions and problems?  Does it support an "us versus them" mentality that goes against ideas of acceptance, inclusion, and diversity?  Does it glorify violence and firearms even as the hypocrisies and failures of American politics and society are justly exposed and satirized?