Zombies have become an increasingly popular object of research in academic studies and, of course, in popular media. Over the past decade, they have been employed to explain mathematical equations, vortex phenomena in astrophysics, the need for improved laws, issues within higher education, and even the structure of human societies. Despite the surge of interest in the zombie as a critical metaphor, no coherent theoretical framework for studying the zombie actually exists. Addressing this current gap in the literature, Theorising the Contemporary Zombie defines zombiism as a means of theorising and examining various issues of society in any given era by immersing those social issues within the destabilising context of apocalyptic crisis; and applying this definition, the volume considers issues including gender, sexuality, family, literature, health, popular culture and extinction.

Contents:Abstract
Author Biographies
List of Figures
Introduction - Scott Hamilton and Conor Heffernan
I. Zombified Bodies
1. Zombies, Deviance, and the Right to Posthuman Life - Poppy Wilde (Birmingham City University)
2. The Apocalypse Workout: Health, Identity and Zombies - Conor Heffernan (University of Texas at Austin)
3. Zombie Orgies and the Fear of the Outer Limits: Examining the Relationship between Fear, Pornography and Zombies - Caroline West (Dublin City University)
4. Aloha-oe: Hello, Goodbye to Love and Family in Sang-ho Yeon's Train to Busan - Harvey O'Brien (University College Dublin)
II. Critical Environments
5. The Stalking Dead: Ireland's Ambiguous Revenants and the Case for a Folk-Zombie Revival - Jack Fennell (University of Limerick)
6. M.R. Carey's The Boy on the Bridge: Ethics and the Apocalypse - Scott Eric Hamilton (University College Dublin)
7. Zombie Colony: The Heteronomy of the Greek State & The Datura of Cultural Capital - Konstantinos Kerasovitis (University of Wolverhampton)
8. Last Ones Left Alive: Zombies and Post-Politics - Deirdre Flynn (University College Dublin)
III. Undead Cultures
9. Beware the Zuvembies: Comics, Censorship, and the Ubiquity of Not-Quite-Zombies - Chera Kee (Wayne State University)
10. Distortions of the Video Dead: The Degradation of Reality in the Era of Zombie VHS - Peter Wright (The University of Sydney)
11. 'Violence is Italian art': Art and Adaptation in Lucio Fulci's 'Gates of Hell' Trilogy - Miranda Corcoran (University College Cork)
12. Surviving the Shambling Signifieds: Zombies, Language, and Chaos - Andrew Ferguson (University of Maryland)
Bibliography
Index