Imagining an epidemic: anthropological analysis of infectious disease representations in popular culture through the example of zombie movies

Osnovna istraživačka ideja disertacije jeste antropološka analiza filmskog konstrukta zombija i epidemiološke apokalipse narativa o zombijima, zasnovana na stanovištu prema kojem popularna kultura, odnosno filmska produkcija, metaforičkim imaginacijama i reprezentacijama govori o savremenom, globalnom društvu. Fenomen zombija se u radu posmatra i upotrebljava kao analitičko sredstvo, odnosno kao konstrukt popularne kulture koji metaforički govori o određenim društvenim diskursima i anksioznostima, poput straha od globalnog širenja infektivnih oboljenja, društvenog kolapsa, gubitka identiteta usled oboljenja i slično. Analizom filmskih narativa putem teorijsko-metodoloških stanovišta medicinske antropologije i socijalne epidemiologije, razotkrivaju se načini na koje popularna kultura konstruiše predstave o konceptima i odnosima bolesti i zdravlja, kao i predstave o virusima, njihovom pojavljivanju i širenju unutar društvenih zajednica, metodama sprečavanja i zaustavljanja epidemija infektivnih oboljenja. Naposletku, rad naglašava društvene promene i posledice zamišljene zombijevske katastrofe, ukazujući na rizike i opasnosti nastale usled delovanja infektivnih oboljenja pandemijskog potencijala.The main research idea behind this dissertation is anthropological analysis of cinematic zombies and notion of epidemiological apocalypse in zombie narratives, based on the point of view through which popular culture uses metaphorical and imagined frameworks in order to represent contemporary, global society and its fundamental discourses. In the analysis, the phenomenon of zombies is conceived as an analytical instrument and metaphorical medium, that is, as a pop-cultural construct that testifies about certain social discourses and anxieties, such as fear of infectious disease spreading, social collapse, identity loss due to illness etc. By using the theoretical and methodological framework from the fields of medical anthropology and social epidemiology, in order to analyze cinematic narratives, dissertation reveals the ways in which popular culture constructs and distributes certain views about the concepts and relationships between health and disease, viruses, their appearance and spreading within society, social agency when it comes to epidemics prevention and eradication. Lastly, dissertation reveals the imagined consequences and social changes of the epidemiological apocalypse, indicating the risks and dangers caused by the infectious diseases spreading