The Northern Irish ‘Troubles’ have been represented in literature and media since their beginning... more The Northern Irish ‘Troubles’ have been represented in literature and media since their beginnings in the mid-nineteen-sixties. It has been argued that societies affected by conflict are transformed through these recurring representations, becoming defined by ‘the need to exhibit them and gaze at them’ (Ashkenazi, 2009, p.5). One notable aspect of these representations is that – surprisingly, for a sectarian ‘society where words kill people’ (Falvey, 1999, p.221) – they often have a concomitant engagement with humour. Noting the connection between the tragic and comic, Hazlitt asserted, ‘[m]an is the only animal that laughs and weeps’. He believed laughter and tears were intrinsic parts of humanity, comparable as ‘convulsive and involuntary movement’ (Hazlitt, 1907, p.1), reacting to different intensities of stimuli. Despite no culture being without humour, Berger proposes humorous responses vary greatly ‘from age to age, and from society to society’ (Berger, 1997, p.X); the unique comic culture fostered by the ‘Troubles’ is testament to this. The problem with humour, however, is one which Kathleen identifies in Johnston’s Shadows on our Skin, when she declares ‘I don’t know why we were laughing’ (Johnston, 1977, p.61), namely, the uncertainty surrounding its function and stimulus. Whilst there is disagreement and a ‘lack of clarity’ (Willis, 2002, p.21) as to the nature of humour, most theories are grouped into three major categories: superiority, relief, and incongruity theory.
Zombie narratives have seen a huge resurgence in both production and popularity in the twenty-fir... more Zombie narratives have seen a huge resurgence in both production and popularity in the twenty-first century. The purpose of this study is to examine some of the reasons behind this, to what ends, and how successful they are in achieving these ends. The empty signification of the zombie makes it a very malleable metaphor for cultural anxieties and socio-political issues. In their examination of society and selfhood, zombie narratives engage with possible solutions to modern issues such as cultural zombification through post-industrial labour and digital technologies. The study will range over key examples of post-millennial zombie narratives: including World War Z, The Walking Dead, and Shaun of the Dead. In their attempt to consider new ways of being, these narratives explore forms of evolution and revolution through a range of socio-political experiments, whilst attempting to imagine an ascendance to post-humanity through proto-societies based upon unification, collectivism, and the abandonment of outmoded familial and social systems. Ultimately, however, these experiments fail to succeed and repeat human failures whilst returning to previous and problematic systems; whilst aiming to achieve a messianic post-history, the narratives get stuck in the perpetual crisis of apocalypse. The essay finally exits the post-millennial canon to consider how Matheson’s I Am Legend provides the only successful option for attaining posthumanity and post-history by providing a third possibility which eliminates both humanity and the cultural anxiety embodied by the zombie.
The Northern Irish ‘Troubles’ have been represented in literature and media since their beginning... more The Northern Irish ‘Troubles’ have been represented in literature and media since their beginnings in the mid-nineteen-sixties. It has been argued that societies affected by conflict are transformed through these recurring representations, becoming defined by ‘the need to exhibit them and gaze at them’ (Ashkenazi, 2009, p.5). One notable aspect of these representations is that – surprisingly, for a sectarian ‘society where words kill people’ (Falvey, 1999, p.221) – they often have a concomitant engagement with humour. Noting the connection between the tragic and comic, Hazlitt asserted, ‘[m]an is the only animal that laughs and weeps’. He believed laughter and tears were intrinsic parts of humanity, comparable as ‘convulsive and involuntary movement’ (Hazlitt, 1907, p.1), reacting to different intensities of stimuli. Despite no culture being without humour, Berger proposes humorous responses vary greatly ‘from age to age, and from society to society’ (Berger, 1997, p.X); the unique comic culture fostered by the ‘Troubles’ is testament to this. The problem with humour, however, is one which Kathleen identifies in Johnston’s Shadows on our Skin, when she declares ‘I don’t know why we were laughing’ (Johnston, 1977, p.61), namely, the uncertainty surrounding its function and stimulus. Whilst there is disagreement and a ‘lack of clarity’ (Willis, 2002, p.21) as to the nature of humour, most theories are grouped into three major categories: superiority, relief, and incongruity theory.
Zombie narratives have seen a huge resurgence in both production and popularity in the twenty-fir... more Zombie narratives have seen a huge resurgence in both production and popularity in the twenty-first century. The purpose of this study is to examine some of the reasons behind this, to what ends, and how successful they are in achieving these ends. The empty signification of the zombie makes it a very malleable metaphor for cultural anxieties and socio-political issues. In their examination of society and selfhood, zombie narratives engage with possible solutions to modern issues such as cultural zombification through post-industrial labour and digital technologies. The study will range over key examples of post-millennial zombie narratives: including World War Z, The Walking Dead, and Shaun of the Dead. In their attempt to consider new ways of being, these narratives explore forms of evolution and revolution through a range of socio-political experiments, whilst attempting to imagine an ascendance to post-humanity through proto-societies based upon unification, collectivism, and the abandonment of outmoded familial and social systems. Ultimately, however, these experiments fail to succeed and repeat human failures whilst returning to previous and problematic systems; whilst aiming to achieve a messianic post-history, the narratives get stuck in the perpetual crisis of apocalypse. The essay finally exits the post-millennial canon to consider how Matheson’s I Am Legend provides the only successful option for attaining posthumanity and post-history by providing a third possibility which eliminates both humanity and the cultural anxiety embodied by the zombie.
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Papers by Baz J Phillips