Queering the Family in The Walking Dead

John R. Ziegler is Assistant Professor of English at Bronx Community College, CUNY, USA. His research straddles the 16th–17th and 20th–21st centuries, and he has published on early modern English and Irish literature, ghosts, zombies, and video games. He also co-edits the journal Supernatural Studies and reviews theater for Culture Catch.

“Queering the Family in The Walking Dead is a useful text for people interested in queer theory and zombie studies. Zeigler has many solid arguments and observations throughout his text, and scholars would benefit from taking his arguments and applying them to other pop culture franchises to examine the way heteronormativity and the nuclear family is entrenched in the media alongside the denigration of queer and alternative family structures.” (Mary F. McGinnis, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, Vol. 32 (1), 2021)

• 1. Introduction.- Part I Living Families.- 2. That Is My Wife: Futurism and Patriarchal Competition.- 3. Insane Proposals: Beyond Monogamy as Beyond Rationality.- Part II Living/Dead Families.- 4. What Happens in the Barn Stays in the Barn: Families and Zombies as Sinthomosexuals.- 5. Out of the Barn: Alternative Families and the Undead.- 6. Conclusion: A Terminus.