摘 要

丧尸有着很长的一段历史，已经演变成一种文化，或者更确切地说，是一种现象。在我的论文中，从一开始的丧尸背景分析，我总结了不同时期丧尸电影中的特点，对此进行归纳概括。这些电影足够经典并能代表这一时期丧尸发展，告诉我们丧尸现象如何逐步发展的。最后我会谈到丧尸在未来会有怎样的发展趋势。我论文的研究意义在于能从不同的视角挖掘人性，对这一新兴现象有一定了解。

关键词：丧尸；现象；时代；人类

Contents

1. Introduction................................................................................................................1

2. Demonstration............................................................................................................2

2.1 The background of the zombie.................................................................................2

2.1.1 The history of zombie............................................................................................3

2.1.2 The zombie journey...............................................................................................4

2.2 The features of different times in zombie film.........................................................4

2.2.1 In the 19^th century—voodoo and slavery in White Zombie...................................5

2.2.2 In the 20^th century—Blood and killing in Night of the Living Dead.....................5

2.3 Future trend of zombie development........................................................................7

2.3.1 In the 21^st century—Salvation in human spiritual civilization..............................7

3.Conclusion...................................................................................................................8

Works Cited..................................................................................................................11

Bibliography.................................................................................................................12

A Brief Analysis of Zombie Phenomenon

1. Introduction

It is difficult to nail down exactly when the word zombie became connected with the walking corpse. I am trying to trace how the concept of the soulless body becomes associated with the resurrected dead, various poisons, and forced labor. At first, there is no “original zombie”, and such a creature is more mythic than zombie itself. The zombie is the product of a story-telling creature, which developed over the course of more than two centuries, and may have been influenced by dozens of African myths, as well as European and Carib legends. The earliest narrative of zombie’s migration and evolution is told through a few texts written by colonizers. That is the Haitian Revolution. As a sovereign nation, Haitians would redefine the zombie and its role in society.

This passage confirms that people in Haiti give the illusion of death and also illustrates the myth of the zombie. As we know today, it is openly acknowledged by this point. Soon after, European and American readers would become acquainted with these points. It is known that voodoo potions can give people the appearance of death.

People identify the zombie both a spirit and a “revenant”, which means someone who has returned from the dead. In 1835, it became a public record that evil individuals use some sort of potion to cause a death-like trance for their own advantage. That makes the zombie as a dead person raised by means of witchcraft to labor endlessly as a punishment for social violation. It can only be the Haitian Revolution.

Put simply, I will talk about the background of the zombie in the first part. In the second part, I am going to summarize the development of zombie phenomenon. That is to say, I will talk about features of different times in zombie films. In the last part, I will give a try on assuming the future trends of zombie phenomenon from my perspective.

1. Demonstration

2.1 The background of the zombie

2.1.1 The history of zombie

The history of the zombie has to be written by pointing to the blank spaces and the omissions in our knowledge. For a half-breed creature such as the living-dead, we can trace its history. The word zombie appeared in the title of a book published in France in 1697. Le Zombie du Gran Perou was later called the “Casanova of the seventeenth century,” (Nancy 26) Pierre-Corneille de Blessebois (1646-1700). It was said that zombies are biting, striking, trying to get the victim to open his or her eyes or make a noise. If they succeed, they would have the power to do worse things. The word zombie is also referred as walking around and having left their bodies resting elsewhere. They will lead you to do evil matters. There are also flying zombies and they always carry torches to torture people—an early reference to voodoo dolls.

It is accepted in Haiti that the word zombie has two meanings: a body without a soul and a soul without a body. There is a zombie soul that can be imprisoned to the slave. It seems reasonable that the French colonists fear from invisible, powerful zombies, because they are similar to the ghosts, specters and spirits of their own superstitions than the dull soulless zombie laborer. This description of embodied zombies seem absent in texts written by colonists and missionaries. The word zombie very seldom appears in conjunction with beings until much later.