Graduation Year
2018
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree
Ph.D.
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Degree Granting Department
Communication
Major Professor
Rachel Dubrofsky, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Ambar Basu, Ph.D.
Committee Member
David A. Payne, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Amy Rust, Ph.D.
Keywords
gender, media, neoliberalism, race, walking dead
Abstract
Concentrating on six representative media sites, 28 Days Later (2002), Dawn of the Dead (2004), Land of the Dead (2005), Children of Men (2007), Snowpiercer (2013), and one television series The Walking Dead (2010-present), this dissertation examines the strain of post-millennial apocalyptic media emphasizing a neo-liberal form of collaboration as the path to survival. Unlike traditional collaboration, the neo-liberal construction centers on the individual’s responsibility in maintaining harmony through intra-group homogeny. Through close textual analysis, critical race theory, and feminist media studies, this project seeks to understand how post-racial and post-feminist representational strategies elide inequality and ignore tensions surrounding racial or gender differences to create harmony-through-homogeny in popular apocalyptic film and television.
Scholar Commons Citation
McCarthy, Mark R., "As Good as it Gets: Redefining Survival through Post-Race and Post-Feminism in Apocalyptic Film and Television" (2018). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/7196
