Abstract

Throughout the times, the perception of death has been changing. If once the eternal rest was accepted, even if feared, now, in societies where rituals, beliefs, and institutions that previously offered comfort have been questioned, and some even became obsolete to many, death has become a source of anxiety. In the post-modern Western society, death is a taboo, as Philippe Ariès famously claimed in the 1980s. Neither individuals nor society is willing to recognize the existence of death. Due to the desire to live eternally, humankind has turned to science and technology. Immortality, however, may be more appalling than death. Inside the Pandora’s box, where immortality remains locked, there may be an apocalyptic world haunted by monsters. In this essay, through the analysis of the film Warm Bodies (2013), a retelling of William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, in which Romeo is a zombie, I will argue that, in the contemporary society, the zombie is not only a violent projection of human emotions regarding natural death, but it also represents the fear of what humankind could turn into if immortality were to be discovered. The film can be interpreted as a cautionary tale about the potential that human emotions have to lead people down a dark and dangerous path, as in Romeo and Juliet. Death will be analysed in light of Philippe Ariès’s concepts discussed in The Hour of Our Death (1980). The monster and the cultural significance of the zombie will be explored through the essay “Monster Culture (Seven Thesis)” (1996), written by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen. Furthermore, the analysis of the zombie will take into consideration some key concepts, such as Doppelgänger and posthuman.

Keywords: monster studies, zombie, death, identity, posthumanism

Resumo

Ao longo dos tempos, a perceção que se tem da morte tem vindo a alterar-se. Se no passado o descanso eterno era aceite, apesar de receado, hoje, as sociedades em que as crenças e as instituições que anteriormente ofereciam conforto se tornaram obsoletas, a morte tornou-se motivo de ansiedade. Na sociedade pós-moderna ocidental, a morte é um tabu, como Philippe Ariès asseverou nos anos oitenta. Nem o indivíduo, nem a sociedade estão dispostos a reconhecer a sua existência.