[ecrea] new book: Going Viral: Zombies, Viruses, and the End of the World

We would like to announce a new publication from Rutgers University 
Press, which we hope will be of interest.

*Going Viral: Zombies, Viruses, and the End of the World*

*Dahlia Schweitzer*

GoingViralBook.com

Outbreak narratives have proliferated for the past quarter century, and 
now they have reached epidemic proportions. From /28 Days Later/ to 
/24/ to /The Walking Dead/, movies, TV shows, and books are filled with 
zombie viruses, bioengineered plagues, and disease-ravaged bands of 
survivors. Even news reports indulge in thrilling scenarios about 
potential global pandemics like SARS and Ebola. Why have outbreak 
narratives infected our public discourse, and how have they affected the 
way Americans view the world?

In /Going Viral/, Dahlia Schweitzer probes outbreak narratives in film, 
television, and a variety of other media, putting them in conversation 
with rhetoric from government authorities and news organizations that 
have capitalized on public fears about our changing world. She 
identifies three distinct types of outbreak narrative, each 
corresponding to a specific contemporary anxiety: globalization, 
terrorism, and the end of civilization. Schweitzer considers how these 
fears, stoked by both fictional outbreak narratives and official 
sources, have influenced the ways Americans relate to their neighbors, 
perceive foreigners, and regard social institutions.

Looking at everything from /I Am Legend/ to /The X Files /to /World War 
Z/, this book examines how outbreak narratives both excite and horrify 
us, conjuring our nightmares while letting us indulge in fantasies about 
fighting infected Others. /Going Viral /thus raises provocative 
questions about the cost of public paranoia and the power brokers who 
profit from it.


Dahlia Schweitzer is currently teaching at Art Center College of Design. 
She is also the author of Cindy Sherman's Office Killer: Another Kind of 
Monster.

Read an extract on/Film Threat/:
http://filmthreat.com/features/an-exclusive-excerpt-from-going-viral/

Check out the supplementary materials:
https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/going-viral-dahlia-schweitzer
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