The Palgrave Handbook of the Zombie

This Handbook will be a unique encompassing overview of the figure of the Zombie. This project will show that while there are many zombies and many texts about zombies it is still often viewed as little more than a sub-genre of Horror. In some respects this is confirmed by the many books and collections that often frame it within a very specific, contained, narrative of the evolution of the zombie, usually beginning with Haitian voodoo and/or George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. However, its history and multiplicity warrants something far more ambitious in terms of cataloguing and defining its many forms, types and possible readings. Consequently, this Handbook proposes to feature elements of all the many and varied representations, narratives, and theories of the zombie, across cultures, histories and mediums to show that it is not just as multifaceted story-world, but is much more akin to a genre in its own right, or what we might term the Zombie Megatext.