Abstract:
Zombies have become prominent figures in popular culture in the twenty-first century. Books,
movies and series are all fascinated with the walking dead and the possible meanings of
the figure. International portrayals of zombies raise concerns about a lack of self-control;
by contrast, this paper argues that Lily Herne’s Mall Rats series, which is about a zombie
outbreak in South Africa, explores posthumanist associations with the dead. The philosophical
approach of posthumanism can be used to question the ideas and conceptualisation of
human identity. While humanism places humans at the centre of the universe, both in
control of and separate from other living, animal and non-human beings, posthumanism
acknowledges that this is only a myth. According to posthuman thought, human subjectivity
is created through a connection to animal and non-human beings; it is an assemblage that
co-evolves with all living beings on the planet. Thus, posthumanism can be used to study
the representations of human identity that have been used to situate the human above other
life forms. Herne depicts this posthuman subjectivity through her South African zombies
categorised as Rotters and Guardians whose thoughts and emotions are connected with
each other, animals and humans. It is this connection to all things that Herne proposes will
end any form of discrimination. As it becomes more and more uncomfortable for the reader
to side with zombie slayers, the posthumanist objective is realised as traditional beliefs that
humans are somehow superior and more conscious than other beings on Earth come into
question.
