Zombified and Traumatized: Healing in Black Women's Zombie Literature

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dc.contributorHarris, Trudier
dc.contributorMcKnight, Utz
dc.contributor.advisorManora, Yolanda
dc.contributor.advisorTrout, Steven
dc.contributor.authorJohnson, Mikayla
dc.contributor.otherUniversity of Alabama Tuscaloosa
dc.date.accessioned2022-07-05T20:07:33Z
dc.date.available2022-07-05T20:07:33Z
dc.date.issued2022
dc.descriptionElectronic Thesis or Dissertationen_US
dc.description.abstractBlack women writers construct literary experiences that reflect the systems of oppression that define their American experience within the horror genre. Through their explorations of race relations in an imaginative and boundless sphere, they provide a portrayal of reality that transcends time. Yet, scholars have overlooked horror by Black women writers and failed to bring them into critical conversations about speculative fiction. This thesis aims to address this neglect by employing a multi-ideological approach to analyze African American women’s zombie literature. I situate “Cue: Change” (2011) by Chesya Burke, Dread Nation (2018) by Justina Ireland, and “The Love of a Zombie is Everlasting” (2020) by Tish Jackson as sankoffarrationist projects that reimagine the struggles and trauma African Americans experience within the systems of racism and other oppressions. The texts offer race-based cultural criticism through Afrofuturistic elements and engagements with themes of Haunting and Community. These three components support the deconstruction and reimagining of harmful Western ideologies. The ensuing reconstruction is performed by invoking Africanist philosophies to encourage identity building and racial remembering. In their literary depictions, the writers construct zombie fictions to reinterpret African American trauma. I argue that these works offer imagined pathways and possibilities for healing intergenerational trauma.en_US
dc.format.mediumelectronic
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.otherhttp://purl.lib.ua.edu/184314
dc.identifier.otheru0015_0000001_0004363
dc.identifier.otherJohnson_alatus_0004M_14846
dc.identifier.urihttps://ir.ua.edu/handle/123456789/8581
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Alabama Libraries
dc.relation.hasversionborn digital
dc.relation.ispartofThe University of Alabama Electronic Theses and Dissertations
dc.relation.ispartofThe University of Alabama Libraries Digital Collections
dc.rightsAll rights reserved by the author unless otherwise indicated.en_US
dc.subjectAfrican American literature
dc.subjectAfrofuturism
dc.subjectCommunity
dc.subjecthaunting
dc.subjectintergenerational trauma
dc.subjectzombie
dc.titleZombified and Traumatized: Healing in Black Women's Zombie Literatureen_US
dc.typethesis
dc.typetext
etdms.degree.departmentUniversity of Alabama. Department of English
etdms.degree.disciplineLiterature
etdms.degree.grantorThe University of Alabama
etdms.degree.levelmaster's
etdms.degree.nameM.A.
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