Reading Ontology and Neoliberalism through Zombies

Sunjoo Choi (DCW 2021)

The 11th seminar installment for the DOOSAN Curators’ Workshop focused on Zombiology, a book by cultural theorist Kim Hyung-Seek. Zombiology is an ambitious attempt to give zombies, often an object of fear and terror, a fresh interpretation as entities that desire a new kind of world. Through this seminar, we sought to discover and contemplate keywords that connect directly or indirectly with upcoming exhibitions.

Opening the seminar with the title “The Ontology of Becoming-Zombie,” Kim Hyung-Seek explained that he intends to expand Gilles Deleuze’s concept of “becoming” to encompass ontology, political theory, and zombiology. Unlike vampires, comparable to capitalistic monsters, or werewolves, with their supernatural physical powers, zombies always appear in hordes, and bring with them the fear of contagion due to their overwhelming numbers. Kim connects the lower-class sentiments inherent in the figure of zombies with a punishment in the Voodoo religion that provides the etymological root of the word ‘zombie.’ This punishment is that of making a person into a mindless slave. For example, in White Zombie (1932), the first zombie film, zombies directly signify slavery. Like the Cartesian ontology that dominated early- to mid-twentieth-century Western philosophy, a clear division between the (white male) human and the zombie asserts itself in this film. However, the zombie slowly invades this dichotomy and destroys it, as can be seen in I Walked with a Zombie (1943), which portrays how Western civilization helplessly collapses in the face of supernatural sorcery. Such changes become more apparent in new styles of zombies introduced in the twenty-first century, such as the “running zombie.” The “running zombie” is a zombie whose presence cannot be sutured shut, a problem that cannot be solved. George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968), a milestone in the history of zombie film, heralds the breakdown of existing value systems through elements such as the dismantling of the ‘normal’ family, cannibalism, and the choice to cast actors of color as the protagonists. Zombie films gained great popularity through the unstable and risk-filled social climate of the 1990s, and their popularity extended to the zombie games of the ’90s. In the twenty-first century, viral infections came to be deployed as the scientific basis for zombies, and zombies become ‘global catastrophes,’ as depicted in films such as 28 Days Later (2002), Resident Evil (2002), The Walking Dead (2010), and World War Z (2013). In particular, these films portray a world that cannot be recovered even at the ending, and conclude on apocalyptic notes of despair.

Kim went on to speak of a new identity, that of the ‘post-zombie,’ that moves beyond the apocalyptic zombie. If zombies are presented simply as agents of global destruction in “running zombie” narratives, the zombies of post-zombie narratives become important motivating forces in narrative movements, and express inherent positive potential. Post-zombie narratives highlight the fact that zombies are oppressed others and minorities, and shed light on the pain and ostracization that they undergo. Warm Bodies (2013) shows how love toward other entities can become an affective power to change the world, and Maggie (2015) tells the story of a zombie who overcomes one’s instincts in order to save one’s family. Furthermore, the Occupy Wall Street movement provides real-life examples of the performativity of becoming-zombie. The zombie protestors directly expressed anger by holding up slogans such as “Bankers Brains Is Tasty” [sic] and “Eat the Rich.” In this case, zombies acquire the potential to subvert social structures by weaponizing their own bodies.

The author closed the seminar by offering an interpretation of zombies as a new kind of entity and subject that have the potential to instigate revolution. The seminar provided an illuminating opportunity to rethink ontology from the vantage point of popular culture by reviewing of the changing concept of zombies through various cultural media from the 1930s to the present.