The Werewolf and the Zombie: The Undead Body and the Misshapen Body in Horror

• Authors: Katarzyna Marak

Title variants

PL

Wilkołak i zombie: zniekształcone i nieumarłe ciało w horrorze

• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The body, whether considered in terms of biology, sociology or religion, is an inherent constituent of that which makes a human subject, complementing the mind and being subject to it. The only space that offers the body the freedom to be treated separately from the mind-subject that otherwise defines it at all times, is horror fiction. In horror fiction the body is free to rebel; horror texts rely on narrative strategies that refer to the intimate connection between the flesh and the mind. The mutiny of the body in horror fiction takes the form of the reversal of the relation between the mind-subject and the body. The aim of this paper is to identify and discuss the two best known and most common manifestations of this motif in horror fiction — manifestations known from legends and the earliest texts of the genre, both literary and cinematic: the animalised body and the undead body, represented by the werewolf and the zombie.

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wroclawskiego
• Journal: Literatura i Kultura Popularna
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 20
• Pages: 65 - 82

Contributors

author

Katarzyna Marak

• Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń (Poland)