Abstract
Whilst not quite a truth universally acknowledged, a claim frequently made about zombie culture is that it has ‘no literary heritage’. By this, what is usually meant is that there is no ‘classic’ zombie novel — no equivalent of Dracula, Frankenstein or Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Even in the accepted pantheon of classic Western horror monsters, the zombie is a freak and an outcast — at least as far as its literary standing is concerned.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains. Never was this truth more plain than during the recent attacks at Netherfield Park, in which a household of eighteen was slaughtered and consumed by a horde of the living dead.
(Austen and Grahame-Smith, 2009, p. 7)
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© 2015 Toby Venables
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Venables, T. (2015). Zombies, a Lost Literary Heritage and the Return of the Repressed. In: Hubner, L., Leaning, M., Manning, P. (eds) The Zombie Renaissance in Popular Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137276506_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137276506_14
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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