Intensification of Biopolitical Strategies: Governing Bodies’ Treatment of Apocalyptic Zombification in Max Brook’s World War Z

Abstract

In Max Brook’s World War Z: An Oral History of Zombie War, the zombie world introduces moments of crisis in the governing system of world powers. Although some have read these moments as being capable of shattering conventional governance systems, the present study sides with the pessimist critics who believe that even in such apocalyptic set of circumstances, governing systems would always regulate their governance through utilising biopolitical strategies. The study divides the novel’s narrative progression into pre-apocalyptic, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic phases so that governing bodies’ unique biopolitical strategies could be analysed in each phase. Through utilising Sherryl Vint’s conceptualisation on bio-politics and neo-liberalism, the study concludes that a series of militaristic, medical and economic miscalculations and stereotypes – which constitute the biopolitical phase of letting people die/making people live in the novel – regulate the governing bodies’ dominance in the pre-apocalyptic phase, while in the apocalyptic and zombie phase, spatial striation and its dependence on safe/unsafe and inside/outside binaries – that comprise the biopolitical phase of making people die/letting people live –  become the survival key for the remaining governing bodies. In the post-apocalyptic world, a more tamed and calibrated version of conventional governance and their governing problems would be perpetuated, and no genuine change or acknowledgement of governance complicity in the transpiration of the apocalypse would emerge.

Opsomming

Die zombiewereld het in Max Brook se roman World War Z: An Oral History of Zombie War verskeie krisisse tot gevolg in die stelsels waarvolgens wereld moondhede regeer. Ofskoon sommige teoretici oortuig is dat hierdie krisisse konvensionele staatsbestuurstelsels kan laat versplinter, kies hierdie studie die sienswyse van pessimistiese kritici wat van mening is dat regeerstelsels, selfs in apokaliptiese omstandighede, hulleself altyd deur allerlei biopolitieke strategiee sal reguleer. In hierdie studie word die roman se narratiewe progressie in drie fases verdeel, te wete die preapokaliptiese, die apokaliptiese en die postapokaliptiese fase, om regerings se biopolitieke strategiee in elke fase te bestudeer. Aan die hand van Sherryl Vint se konseptualisering van die biopolitiek en die neoliberalisme word tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat militaristiese, mediese en ekonomiese misvattings en stereotipes regeer korpse se oorheersing in die preapokaliptiese fase kenmerk. In Brook se roman is dit die biopolitieke fase, die fase waarin beslis word of mense kan leef of moet sterf. In die apokaliptiese of zombiefase word ruimtelike groewe en die afhanklikheid van die tweedeling veilig of onveilig en binne of buite grense die belangrikste manier waarop die oorblywende regeerkorpse nog kan oorleef. In die post apokaliptiese fase bestaan 'n meer getemperde en gekalibreerde weergawe van konvensionele staatsbestuur en gepaardgaande staatsprobleme steeds voort sonder dat staatsbestuurders hulle aandadigheid aan die apokalips erken.