This project explores the zombie’s status and function as an artistic traumatic grotesque within the 2000s. Coined as a grotesque “stream” by art historian Frances S. Connelly, the traumatic grotesque interrupts established visual norms by presenting contemporary social anxieties in monstrous form. Though a historically filmic monster, the zombie made its formal and enduring appearance in visual art amid the near-continuous cultural traumas of the 2000s. My goal was a better understanding of how the zombie, as expressed in art and film, embodies the traumatic imagery and psychology of three specific tragedies. They are: Britain’s 2001 Foot and Mouth disease outbreak, Damien Hirst and Jenny Saville, and Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later (2002); 9/11, Dana Schutz’s “Self Eaters” series (2003-2005), and George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead (2005); and the 2008-2010 Great Recession, Jillian McDonald, and AMC’s The Walking Dead Season Four (2013-2014).The zombie’s iconographic crossover marks art history’s need for a detailed history of both zombie symbolism and how the social contexts of past and present iterations affect the monster’s function and reception. I used a combination of semiotics, psychoanalysis and critical theory to begin that examination. First, a brief historiographic analysis of grotesque theory establishes the artistic construct’s evolving “yes, and…” semiotic functions. From within a socio-historical breakdown of zombie movies, the monster uses its grotesque characteristics to critically challenge the viewer’s social identity. During cultural trauma, sociological and psychoanalytic effects transform the zombie into a traumatic grotesque. By invoking viewer identification and traumatic memory, the zombie traumatic-grotesque engages individual viewers in self-realized moments of either progressive or traditional cathartic trauma processing. / Art History
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TEMPLE/oai:scholarshare.temple.edu:20.500.12613/6898 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Castro, Heather, 0000-0002-3936-0287 |
| Contributors | Pauwels, Erin Kristl, Silk, Gerald, Glahn, Philip, Alter, Nora M., 1962- |
| Publisher | Temple University. Libraries |
| Source Sets | Temple University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation, Text |
| Format | 465 pages |
| Rights | IN COPYRIGHT- This Rights Statement can be used for an Item that is in copyright. Using this statement implies that the organization making this Item available has determined that the Item is in copyright and either is the rights-holder, has obtained permission from the rights-holder(s) to make their Work(s) available, or makes the Item available under an exception or limitation to copyright (including Fair Use) that entitles it to make the Item available., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Relation | http://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/6880, Theses and Dissertations |
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