Tuesday, October 26, 2021 5:30pm
About this Event
Dr. David Shyovitz (Northwestern University)
In recent years, zombies have become ubiquitous in popular culture across the globe. Films, television shows, novels, and video games are positively teeming with threatening hordes of the undead (and not a few sympathetic zombie protagonists as well). Correspondingly, philosophers, cultural historians, and media critics have inaugurated an academic field of Zombie Studies, which seeks to "think with zombies" about core questions of human identity, philosophy of mind, and political economy. But the notion that zombies might have profound implications was not a modern discovery. Jews and Christians in medieval Europe took for granted that the "walking dead" roamed through their towns, and prominent theologians were intensely preoccupied by the nature and meaning of these corporeal revenants. This presentation will survey a range of medieval Jewish legal, narrative, and mystical texts that feature reanimated corpses, and will trace the ways in which rabbinic authors marshalled these ostensibly threatening creatures for lofty spiritual ends.
*Registration/Zoom info TBA*
Please let us know if you require an accommodation in order to participate in this event. Accommodations may include live captioning, ASL interpreters, and/or captioned media and accessible documents from recorded events. At least 5 days in advance is recommended.