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Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Part 1

2/20/2016

By Jamie A. Thomas

Chalkboard from my seminar course on February 17, 2016.

Brainstorming in my seminar course, *Languages of Fear, Racism, and Zombies* (Spring 2016) on February 17.

"There was, however, a savage wildness that could only impress us with forebodings respecting Mr. Farewell and his party, of whom we were in search, which led us to apprehend that they had all fallen by the savage hands of the tribes who might occasionally visit the coast." - Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa: Descriptive of the Zoolus, Their Manners, and Customs, Vol. 1 (1836, p. 10)

"Scary Sh*t."

In the seminar course I'm teaching this semester, we'll be attending a movie theater showing of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016) next week. This in mind, my goal has been to prepare my students for a critical examination of the film by studying concurrent 19th century discourse. Jane Austen's novel was originally published in 1813, the same time in which European colonial expansion was underway, slavery in the U.S. (and Americas) was reaching its zenith, and modern linguistics and anthropology were also taking shape. Other texts from this historical period include Nathaniel Isaacs' Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa, Vol. 1 (1836), famous for its (now debunked) descriptions of King Shaka Zulu, as well as Solomon Northrup's (1853) autobiographical account (now feature film) Twelve Years a Slave, and Charles Darwin's Descent of Man (1871).

As I critically examine key examples of thought and discourse from this period together with my students, we are additionally drawing crucial connections to the rise of the zombie in U.S. American popular culture. This week, we examined excerpts from each of Isaacs' and Darwin's popular pieces. This was for my ongoing Spring 2016 course, Languages of Fear, Racism, and Zombies. In class, I guided students in using critical discourse analysis to examine these important texts.

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The Bronx Spoke and I Talked Back

2/9/2016

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By Jamie A. Thomas

Closing Social Distance on the Street

When I stepped onto the street, all around me I heard sounds. Car horns, cell phone conversations. Clothing outlets and grocery stores lined the avenue, some with doors ajar, and folks were selling things in the open air, too. Everyone else was making their way home as though at the end of a long work day, their footsteps ladened with backpacks, boxes, and other packages they were carrying onwards. My first time in the Bronx, and it could've been a scene from a vibrant street in one of Mexico City's several colonias. I was awestruck by the lively rhythm of this community. Words in Spanish and Vietnamese renewed old Jewish storefronts, where Stars of David still crest brick and mortar facades.

On my way to the nearest subway station, a colorful man standing on the corner approached me, advertising for a local business over a megaphone. He was doing his energetic best to get me to support a nearby salon. As I kept walking, I responded to let him know he had been heard, but that I wasn't interested. Why not? I told him I wouldn't be around long enough, that I wasn't a New York local. Where you from? Philly, and I was on the move, I said smiling, having used a phrase my mom often returned to.

But an interesting thing happened as I was talking to this guy.

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#languagestory blog

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Part 1

"Scary Sh*t."

The Bronx Spoke and I Talked Back

Closing Social Distance on the Street

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