Document Type
Article
Language
eng
Publication Date
2018
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Source Publication
Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies
Source ISSN
1749-6020
Original Item ID
DOI: 10.1177/1749602018796696
Abstract
This article argues that The Walking Dead is a post-Western, a genre that extracts classical Hollywood Western themes and iconography, and resituates them in a dystopian, postapocalyptic setting. The program features characters forced to reconquer the frontier amid the disintegration of modern society, who must battle undead walkers and other human survivors. As a post-Western, the program inverts the ideological optimism of the classical Hollywood Western. In doing so, it highlights the linkages between the seemingly unconnected narrative universes of the Western and the postapocalyptic tale.
Recommended Citation
Keeler, Amanda R., "A Postapocalyptic Return to The Frontier: The Walking Dead As Post-Western" (2018). College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications. 523.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/comm_fac/523
Comments
Accepted version. Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies, Vol. 13, No. 4 (December 1, 2018): 422-437. DOI. © 2018 SAGE Publications. Used with permission.