This thesis attempts to take seriously the claims made by many postapocalyptic zombie narratives to represent the world as it truly is, analyzing and then assessing the theological value of their depictions of the human predicament. The approach is both formal and what Gary Wolfe calls transmedial, examining the recurring narrative structures and themes of texts across several media and eras as part of 'a popular aesthetic movement and not just a body of works of fiction on similar themes', with special attention given to the films and television of the new millennium. The aim is twofold: to extend the relevance of postapocalyptic zombie fictions beyond the relatively narrow vogue of a cultural moment, and to prompt a richer appreciation of the significance of the Christian faith within contemporary society. To this end, Chapter One contextualizes the complexity of these texts' relationship to Christianity by examining first the most prominent obstacles and then the implicit promise of these texts for theological reflection. It places special emphasis on the interior tension in many of these fictions between, on the one hand, aggressively emphasizing the apparent absence of the supernatural, while on the other, frequently claiming to disclose a dimension of human experience in excess of what can be ordinarily perceived by the senses. Chapters Two and Three extend this analysis to the complex content of what these stories depict. Chapter Two considers the multilayered symbolism of decline in their conspicuous spectacles of disaster, disintegration, and death. Chapter Three examines the countervailing symbolic motifs of residual integrity and regeneration that are exhibited most prominently by characters who attempt to live genuinely human lives in spite of these circumstances. The first half of the thesis concludes by proposing a composite postapocalyptic view of the human predicament, which represents the world as ambiguous, dramatic and quite possibly, although not certainly, absurd. Chapter Four begins the theological reflection upon this kind of postapocalyptic perspective, proposing how such depictions might be illuminated by Christian theological descriptions, particularly the absurd existential circumstances brought about by the original sin. Chapter Five, reciprocally, suggests some of the ways the dramatic images of these texts might enrich theological reflection by eliciting fresh insights into the significance of the central mysteries of Christianity, especially the paradoxical already-and-not-yet of eschatological expectation. The thesis concludes by offering a final evaluation of whether, all told, the world can be truly considered postapocalyptic from a Christian perspective, arguing that although there are significant differences, postapocalyptic fictions and Christianity put forward strikingly similar pictures of the deeply self-conflicted circumstances of the common human predicament.

<p>Inledning</p><p>The horror of the zombie movie comes from recognizing the human in the monster; the terror of the zombie movie comes from knowing there is nothing to do about it but destroy what is left; the fun comes from watching the genre continue to develop. Although zombies are technically dead, their cinematic genre is a living, breathing entity that continues to grow and evolve.</p><p>Citatet taget ur Kyle Bishops artikel ”Raising the dead” öppnar upp för en intressant diskussion angående utvecklingen av zombiefilm. De flesta i en skräckfilmspublik kan på ett fåtal sekunder med säkerhet peka ut en zombie på vita duken. Även filmad i long shots och i extreme long shots kan till och med den åskådare som är relativt ny för genren känna igen zombien. De tydliga rörelsemönstren med långsamma släpande steg och ryckiga rörelser tillhör förväntningarna kring hur zombies ska bete sig, men ser zombien verkligen ut så idag? Om en publik förväntar sig se dessa stildrag när de bänkar sig för att titta på en zombiefilm gjord under 2000-talet är det vad de möter? Visst kan man ännu se grunden till dessa manér även i zombies av idag men dock med ett flertal modifieringar. Den klassiska bleka sminkningen tillsammans med ett lika klassiskt rörelsemönster som sedan Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968) har definierat zombien inom filmens värld befinner sig i en ständig transformation. Denna uppsats kommer att granska film och litteratur i ett försök att bena ut de olika stilistiska och sociala förändringar som zombien genomgått från 1968 fram till idag.</p>

Inledning The horror of the zombie movie comes from recognizing the human in the monster; the terror of the zombie movie comes from knowing there is nothing to do about it but destroy what is left; the fun comes from watching the genre continue to develop. Although zombies are technically dead, their cinematic genre is a living, breathing entity that continues to grow and evolve. Citatet taget ur Kyle Bishops artikel ”Raising the dead” öppnar upp för en intressant diskussion angående utvecklingen av zombiefilm. De flesta i en skräckfilmspublik kan på ett fåtal sekunder med säkerhet peka ut en zombie på vita duken. Även filmad i long shots och i extreme long shots kan till och med den åskådare som är relativt ny för genren känna igen zombien. De tydliga rörelsemönstren med långsamma släpande steg och ryckiga rörelser tillhör förväntningarna kring hur zombies ska bete sig, men ser zombien verkligen ut så idag? Om en publik förväntar sig se dessa stildrag när de bänkar sig för att titta på en zombiefilm gjord under 2000-talet är det vad de möter? Visst kan man ännu se grunden till dessa manér även i zombies av idag men dock med ett flertal modifieringar. Den klassiska bleka sminkningen tillsammans med ett lika klassiskt rörelsemönster som sedan Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968) har definierat zombien inom filmens värld befinner sig i en ständig transformation. Denna uppsats kommer att granska film och litteratur i ett försök att bena ut de olika stilistiska och sociala förändringar som zombien genomgått från 1968 fram till idag.

Thesis--Auburn University, 2009. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 44-46).

The Walking Dead is a popular American tv-series set in the near future, or an alternative present. Society has fallen and colapsed into a more post-apocalyptic state. Till this date the seires has reached its third season, and each episode has several million viewers around the world. In this essay the author tries to see how the tv-series reprensatation of men and women looks like. Media, such as tv-series, acts as great source of inspiration when people tries to understand the world around them. If men and women are representated diffrently that may effect how the viewers treat people in general. The purpose of this study wass to examine how men and women were portrayed in the series. What wass classed as typical male and female and how men and women relate to each other in different situations. In order to properly answer to the studys purpose previous research on gender, femininities, masculinities and stereotypes were applied. The material were then examined in a qualitative content analysis with a semiotic approach where the text were studied to elucidate its denotative and connotative meanings. In short, thhe study shows that men and women are equipped with very different abilities. The woman is often portrayed as weak while the man, almost always, is portrayed as the stronger one.

Dante's Inferno defined hell in Western literature for centuries; it was a physical place for sinners, they were subjected to physical torments, and it was in the afterlife. Dante’s depiction was firmly rooted in Christian theology. However, as fears and morals change, ideas of hell evolve as well. With the popularity of the zombie and other apocalypse narratives, these ideas return to the notion of physical torment and earthly places. In poetry, novels, theater, television, and film, writers examine different interpretations of hell, punishment, and redemption as metaphors for modern sins. In Sartre’s Huis clos, hell is a windowless room, and the tortures are inflicted psychologically by other people. In Romero’s Living Dead films, hell comes to earth, and the torments are both physical and psychological. Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer shows how hellish the common experiences of high school and growing up can be. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road examines hell as a lack of place, a relentless journey without end. In these and other works, the concept of hell is reinvented and replaced by new ideas, but the influence of the past iterations shapes the new landscapes.

This thesis presents and evaluates David Chalmers argument that the existence of phenomenal conscious experience constitutes a permanent barrier to the reductive aspirations of a purely materialistic neuroscience. My aim is to defend the possibility of a reductive explanation of consciousness, and argue that continued research in neuroscience and neurophysiology can result in a successful materialistic or reductive solution to the hard problem of consciousness. My argument against Chalmers is two-fold. First, I challenge Chalmers claim that consciousness does not logically supervene on the physical. And second, I argue that his conceivability argument is implausible.

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This thesis presents and evaluates David Chalmers argument that the existence of phenomenal conscious experience constitutes a permanent barrier to the reductive aspirations of a purely materialistic neuroscience. My aim is to defend the possibility of a reductive explanation of consciousness, and argue that continued research in neuroscience and neurophysiology can result in a successful materialistic or reductive solution to the hard problem of consciousness. My argument against Chalmers is two-fold. First, I challenge Chalmers claim that consciousness does not logically supervene on the physical. And second, I argue that his conceivability argument is implausible.

This essay investigates experienced intensity through character description and development in Stephen King’s Cell. The thesis of the essay is that a deliberately produced narrative indeterminacy, used mainly on the level of character descriptions, is what produces intensity by holding the readers of Cell in suspense, i.e., in a state of uncertainty. While King might stretch the fundamentals of the classic horror genre, he does not abandon them, experimenting with a genre that makes the readers wonder what to expect next, thereby creating suspenseful questions. Since the focus of the essay is the readers’ reactions on character descriptions, I apply reader response theory and the works of Norman Holland, David Bleich and Yvonne Leffler. The result of the investigation shows that narrative techniques, such as placing brief descriptions of characters in the course of events in the narrative together with altered norms and normality allow the readers to experience heightened emotions and feelings. King alters norms and normality, and presents character descriptions in a fashion that is unexpected; thus the readers do not know exactly how to relate to these character descriptions.