In the early decades of the twenty-first century William Shakespeare’s works and figure began to arise in Young Adult adaptations and transnarratives focusing upon the undead. These works of werewolf, vampire, and zombie fiction represented Shakespeare as a creature of the undead or as a heroic savior. I argue that the figure of Shakespeare appears as an ambivalent symbol of corrupt authority or redeeming power within these YA undead adaptations because we are unable to reconcile Shakespeare’s centrality in literary studies with our twenty-first century social, political, and moral ideals such as multiculturalism, gender equality, and race relations. Essentially, these undead adaptations manifest the figure of Shakespeare as a crisis of our own faith in the “dead white European male” model of authority. Many of the works offer a rather dim view of the author and the cultural authority that he once represented. And the image these YA narratives conjure is often that of a zombie Shakespeare who is both immortal and rotting. Or alternatively, the absolute power of a vampire Shakespeare: cold, white, male, feeding upon the blood of the living. I argue that the YA protagonists must destroy the corrupt authority figures who hold power over them to create a “new world order” in these narratives, and Shakespeare’s position as “the author of authors” serves as the prime target. Alternatively, the contrasting narratives place Shakespeare in opposition to the undead hordes that are attacking humanity. In these novels and films, the figure of Shakespeare is an iteration of viable knowledge and authority solving not only his era’s problems, but those of our own, as well. I argue that these narratives seek to renew and add to Shakespeare’s authority through a metaphor of undead hybridity. By analyzing the werewolf or zombie-hunter in both film and literature, I demonstrate that many narratives utilize Shakespeare as a hybrid of both historical/literary authority and our own modern ideals. Rather than simply wolf or slayer, the Shakespeare of these narratives is both early modern authority and twenty-first century social/political hero.

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Sans corps, pas d'histoires. Vecteur d'action, instrument de la narration, et support d'un lien d'identification fort entre le spectateur et le personnage, le corps est la principale figure des médiums cinématographique et télévisuel. Si le cinéma a toujours, depuis ses balbutiements, glorifié la vivacité inépuisable des corps, parallèlement déjà, planait la face inversée de cette exposition, la menace muette de la mort. Mais si le dernier souffle avant la mort est bien souvent encore, au cinéma et à la télévision, synonyme d'ultime communion avec la vie et de résistance à la mort, qu'en est-il du corps et du personnage quand la mort s'en est saisi à jamais et qu'il ne reste plus aux vivants, personnages et spectateurs, qu'à se confronter au cadavre ? Figure parasitaire, le cadavre n'est ni un personnage ni même un figurant. A la fois signe vide et noyau narratif, c'est à partir de lui et de son examen pendant l'autopsie ou sur les lieux du crime que va se nourrir et se développer l'intrigue policière. Et s'il peut paraître secondaire, voire accessoire, à regarder les fictions policières sous l'angle de son non-regard fixe et opaque, il donne à voir quelque chose du crime, de son caractère profondément injuste, et des rapports qu'entretiennent les vivants avec une mort qui se présente sur la table d'autopsie, sous ses traits les plus abjects. L'enjeu de cette thèse sera d'envisager la façon dont les fictions policières mettent en scène le cadavre comme le reflet, d'une troublante précision, d'un défaut contemporain de distanciation face à la mort. Il s'agira bien pour nous, et selon un principe analogue à celui qu'applique le philosophe Maxime Coulombe dans son essai sur les zombies, de considérer le cadavre fictionnel comme « analyseur de la société contemporaine » et comme « symptôme de ce qui taraude la conscience de notre époque » / Without bodies, no stories. A vehicle of action, a narrative agent, and the support of a strong identification link between the audience and the character, the body is the main figure of cinematographic and television mediums.If cinema has always, from its early stages, glorified the endless liveliness of bodies, the reverse side of this exposure has simultaneously been lingering: the mute threat of death. However, in films or in television series, if the last breath before death is often synonymous with a ultimate communion with life and with a resistance to death, what happens to the body and the character when death has seized them for ever, and the living – characters and audience – are only left facing the corpse? As a parasite figure, the corpse is neither a character nor even an extra. Both an empty sign and a narrative core, the crime plot will indeed develop from the corpse and its examination, during the autopsy or on the crime scene. And whereas the corpse may seem secondary, even minor, if we look at crime fictions from the angle of its fixed and opaque non-look, it still allows us to see something of the crime and of its deeply unfair nature, and of the relations between the living and a death that appears in its most abject features on the autopsy table. In this study, we will examine how crime fictions stage corpses as disturbingly precise reflects of a contemporary lack of perspective in front of death. Similarly to the philosopher Maxime Coulombe in his essay on zombies, we will consider the fictional corpse as an "analyser of contemporary society" and as a "symptom of what is tormenting the consciousness of our time"

This thesis looks at occurrences of "living death" – a liminal state that exists between life and death, and which may be approached from either side – in early modern English drama. Today, reference to the living dead brings to mind zombies and their ilk, creatures which entered the English language and imagination centuries after the time of the great early modern playwrights. Yet, I argue, many post-Reformation writers were imagining states between life and death in ways more complex than existing critical discussions of “ghosts” have tended to perceive. My approach to the subject is broadly historicist, but informed throughout by ideas of stagecraft and performance. In addition to presenting fresh interpretations of well-known plays such as Thomas Middleton’s The Maiden’s Tragedy (1611) and John Webster’s The White Devil (1612), I also endeavour to shed new light on various non-canon works such as the anonymous The Tragedy of Locrine (c.1591), John Marston's Antonio's Revenge (c.1602), and Anthony Munday's mayoral pageants Chruso-thriambos (1611) and Chrysanaleia (1616), works which have received little in the way of serious scholarly attention or, in the case of Antonio's Revenge, been much maligned by critics. These dramatic works depict a whole host of the living dead, including not only ghosts and spirits but also resurrected Lord Mayors, corpses which continue to “perform” after death, and characters who anticipate their deaths or define themselves through last dying speeches. By exploring the significance of these characters, I demonstrate that the concept of living death is vital to our understanding of deeper thematic and symbolic meanings in a wide range of dramatic works.

<p>This thesis examines the social theory of Lacanian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. It focuses on Žižek’s work between 1989 and 2006, and offers an interpretation based on a reading of three central concepts: the Other, fantasy, and the act. All these concepts occupy the intersection between Lacan’s three orders (Imaginary, Real, Symbolic), which in Žižek’s theory means that they express a tension shared by all social order. The first chapter approaches Žižek’s conception of “the social” through an introduction of the Lacanian concept of "the Other." Attention is paid to how (a) the Other is constitutively split between its role as a Symbolic network of signifiers, and its enigmatic (Real and Imaginary) capacity to support this Symbolic network; (b) a similar split marks several of Žižek’s Lacanian and Hegelian concepts. Moreover, the chapter contrasts Žižekian sociality with those of Giddens, Luhmann and Althusser. The second chapter gives an account of the topological place of fantasy in Žižek’s theory. Relating Žižek’s theory to Critical Theory, deconstruction and Deleuzian philosophy, fantasy is presented as a concept countering new forms of “bad infinity” (Hegel) in modern social theory. The third chapter links Žižek’s theory of the act to the theories of Judith Butler, Ernesto Laclau, and Alain Badiou. Commenting on Rex Butler’s brilliant reading of Žižek, the thesis argues that Butler’s definition of the act is too negative. Instead, the thesis proposes a definition which emphasises the act's productive dimension, insisting on how the act ultimately involves the transformation from masculine to feminine enjoyment. The last chapter critically observes the different treatments Lacan and Derrida receive in Žižek’s text. The argument concludes that the Žižekian text relapses into a "masculine logic of exception", insofar as it leaves Derrida’s phallus untouched, while treating Lacan as the only one lacking phallus.</p>

This thesis examines the social theory of Lacanian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. It focuses on Žižek’s work between 1989 and 2006, and offers an interpretation based on a reading of three central concepts: the Other, fantasy, and the act. All these concepts occupy the intersection between Lacan’s three orders (Imaginary, Real, Symbolic), which in Žižek’s theory means that they express a tension shared by all social order. The first chapter approaches Žižek’s conception of “the social” through an introduction of the Lacanian concept of "the Other." Attention is paid to how (a) the Other is constitutively split between its role as a Symbolic network of signifiers, and its enigmatic (Real and Imaginary) capacity to support this Symbolic network; (b) a similar split marks several of Žižek’s Lacanian and Hegelian concepts. Moreover, the chapter contrasts Žižekian sociality with those of Giddens, Luhmann and Althusser. The second chapter gives an account of the topological place of fantasy in Žižek’s theory. Relating Žižek’s theory to Critical Theory, deconstruction and Deleuzian philosophy, fantasy is presented as a concept countering new forms of “bad infinity” (Hegel) in modern social theory. The third chapter links Žižek’s theory of the act to the theories of Judith Butler, Ernesto Laclau, and Alain Badiou. Commenting on Rex Butler’s brilliant reading of Žižek, the thesis argues that Butler’s definition of the act is too negative. Instead, the thesis proposes a definition which emphasises the act's productive dimension, insisting on how the act ultimately involves the transformation from masculine to feminine enjoyment. The last chapter critically observes the different treatments Lacan and Derrida receive in Žižek’s text. The argument concludes that the Žižekian text relapses into a "masculine logic of exception", insofar as it leaves Derrida’s phallus untouched, while treating Lacan as the only one lacking phallus.