Event Archive
This is an archive of past events within the Department of English Studies. Please see our current events for forthcoming activities.
Some of our public events are recorded and are available as podcasts via our Research English At Durham blog.
From Monster to Culture Hero- Zombies, Mass Culture, and the Horrors of Capitalism
A Late Summer Public Lecture organised by postgraduates in the Department of English Studies.
With more zombie movies released in the last decade than in the entire century before, Zombie Survival Guides selling millions of copies, research societies modelling anticipated outbreaks, and every major city in North America and the UK featuring its own Zombie walk where hundreds to thousands of people roam moaning about the streets, the “undead” have long become a fundamental fantasy of contemporary mass culture. This lecture will show why these creatures have become so pervasive and why we secretly like them. After providing an aetiology of the zombie myth, from its beginnings inHaitito its xenophobic appropriations on the American silver screen, it will discuss the work of film director George A. Romero, who not only established the zombie film as a genre in its own right but also made the horror cinema a medium of overt protest and subversion.
Contact late-summer.lectures@durham.ac.uk for more information about this event.
Related Links
READ Blog
Research in English At Durham (READ) blog showcasing the the literary research emerging from the Department of English Studies
Events
We host a large number of conferences, lectures and seminars each year, many of them open to the public. Find out more on our Events page.
Podcasts
Many of our public lectures, seminars and conferences are recorded, and can be listened to as podcasts.
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Next Event
- 20th January 2021
- Sensory Experiments in Nineteenth-Century Literature
- Online (Zoom)
- Dr Erica Fretwell (University of Albany) and Dr Shannon Draucker (Siena College)