Using Zombie Comedies to Teach Critical IR Theory

Professor Rodger A. Payne

Department of Political Science

203 Ford Hall

2301 S. Third Street

University of Louisville

Louisville, KY 40208

R.Payne@louisville.edu

(502) 852-3316 (office)

(502) 852-7923 (fax)

Prepared for delivery at the Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association, Annual

Meeting, Toronto, Ontario, March 26-29, 2014. Panel on “Fantasy and Reality? Diverse

Approaches to Active Learning in IR.”

Abstract

In recent years, many international relations scholars have enthusiastically embraced work from

popular culture as teaching tools, or as novel means to explore IR theory. Scholars have

produced numerous journal articles, book chapters, and books studying the characters and

situations developed in a host of popular novels, films, and television programs. The dominant

work in this genre seems to be Daniel Drezner’s Theory of International Politics and Zombies.

Drezner argues that zombies provide the perfect metaphor for thinking about diverse

contemporary threats. However, critics have noted that Drezner’s work, which is perhaps most

sympathetic to pessimistic realism, is less useful for thinking about reflectivist approaches,

including critical theory. This paper argues that zombie comedies provide an interesting

alternative narrative perspective. Comedies typically focus on ordinary people and emphasize

their regular lives — the human security agenda. Comedic stories end happily, often in a

marriage. Comedies focusing on elites characteristically satirize and critique these figures,

revealing them to be self-interested buffoons. Satire and black comedy can be subversive,

reflecting critical rather than entrenched understandings. Recent zombie comedic films reveal

both the concerns of ordinary people and critical theoretical ideas about powerful elites. Thus,

they offer an important perspective for understanding global politics.

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Using Zombie Comedies to Teach Critical IR Theory

In recent years, many scholars of international relations (IR) have revealed a surprising

interest in popular culture. Many, in fact, have been studying and writing seriously about a

diverse oeuvre of words and images, though with a noticeable tilt towards works of fantasy and

science fiction: the Harry Potter series, The Godfather, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Star Trek,

Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Survivor, and Independence Day.1

Apparently, as will be discussed in some detail below, many more IR scholars have been

teaching popular culture in their classes, often relying upon the films and television programs

already mentioned. However, the dominant work in this IR genre is arguably Daniel Drezner’s

Theory of International Politics and Zombies.2 If book sales are any indication, then thousands of

college students have studied zombies in their international relations courses. TIPZ reportedly

sold more than 10,000 copies in its first six months and the author suspects that “the biggest

reason for these numbers” is because the book is “being assigned in college courses.”3

1 See Daniel H., Nexon and Iver B. Neumann, eds. Harry Potter and international relations (Rowman &

Littlefield, 2006); John C. Hulsman and A. Wess Mitchell, The Godfather doctrine: a foreign policy

parable (Princeton University Press, 2009); Abigail E. Ruane and Patrick James, The International

Relations of Middle-Earth: Learning from The Lord of the Rings (University of Michigan Press, 2012);

Barry Buzan, “America in space: The international relations of Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica,”

39 Millennium-journal of international studies, No. 1, 2010, pp. 175-180; Priya Dixit, “Relating to

Difference: Aliens and Alienness in Doctor Who and International Relations,” 13 International Studies

Perspectives, no. 3, 2012, pp. 289-306; Christina Rowley and Jutta Weldes, “The evolution of

international security studies and the everyday: Suggestions from the Buffyverse,” 43 Security Dialogue,

no. 6, 2012, pp. 513-530; Mark B. Salter, “Teaching Prisoners' Dilemma Strategies in Survivor: Reality

Television in the IR Classroom,” International Studies Perspectives, 2012; and Julie Webber,

“Independence Day as a cosmopolitan moment: teaching international relations,” 6 International Studies

Perspectives, no. 3, 2005, pp. 374-392. 2 Daniel W. Drezner, Theory of International Politics and Zombies (Princeton, 2011). 3 Daniel W. Drezner, “A pedagogical plea regarding Theories of International Politics and Zombies,”

Foreign Policy online, September 18, 2011. Available at

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/09/18/a_pedagogical_plea_regarding_theories_of_international

_politics_and_zombies.

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This paper argues that Drezner’s view of a zombie-filled world is apocalyptic and thus

implicitly champions a traditional and overly narrow kind of IR thinking focused on the

difficulty of surviving in a deadly world. In a narrative sense, such thinking tends to be framed

around either heroic adventure stories or tragedies. Indeed, Drezner acknowledges that “Zombie

stories end in one of two ways—the elimination/subjugation of all zombies, or the eradication of

humanity from the face of the earth.”4 Largely because of these narrative constraints, Drezner is

insufficiently attentive to critical international relations theory, which can be readily aligned with

comedic and satirical narratives, even in a zombie-filled world. Comedies typically focus on

ordinary people and emphasize their regular lives — as reflected perhaps in concerns

emphasized by the human security agenda.5 Comedic stories end happily, often in a marriage.

Comedies focusing on elites characteristically satirize and critique these figures, revealing them

to be self-interested and buffoonish, worthy of scorn. Satire and black comedy can be subversive,

reflecting critical rather than entrenched understandings of the status quo. Ultimately, this paper

focuses on several recent comedic zombie films that reveal both the concerns of ordinary people

and critical theoretical ideas about the threat environment and the position of powerful elites who

seemingly benefit from that world. Thus, employing these films in the classroom offers an

important alternative perspective for understanding and criticizing global politics.

Zombies and IR

The intellectual conceit driving Dan Drezner’s project is that zombies provide powerful

metaphors for thinking about diverse contemporary threats. Specifically, zombies provide a near-

4 Drezner, 2011, p. 9. 5 The seminal work is United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report (New

York: Oxford University, 1994), pp. 22-40.

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perfect device by which to imagine man’s fate in a threat environment that is often discussed by

IR theorists -- the Hobbesian state of nature, “where every man is enemy to every man”:

"In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain:

and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that

may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving and

removing such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no

account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear,

and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”6

In the classroom, zombies are thought to shape and condition international political life in much

the same way that anarchy is said to shape and condition IR. Drezner and others working in this

tradition have thus outlined a number of ways students might think about the way standard IR

theories would address the zombie threat.7 Literally, zombies might be viewed as victims of

biological warfare or pandemic. Figuratively, zombies might stand in for suicide terrorists, rogue

states armed with weapons of mass destruction, or more conventionally, as near-perfect soldiers

absolutely committed to victory in war.

While reviewers have called Drezner’s contribution imaginative and creative,8 some IR

scholars have criticized his work for its failure to address critical theory and for reinforcing the

IR status quo. For instance, though Charli Carpenter believes that “the book can and must be

6 Thomas Hobbes, The Leviathan. From chapter 13. 7 See also Robert G. Blanton, “Zombies and International Relations: A Simple Guide for Bringing the

Undead into Your Classroom,” 14 International Studies Perspectives, No. 1, 2013, pp. 1-13. 8 See the reviews by Publisher’s Weekly, January 24, 2011, available at

http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-691-14783-3; and Sara Yasin, “Special Book Review: Theories

of International Politics and Zombies,” British Politics and Policy, London School of Economics and

Political Science, April 1, 2011, available at http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/archives/9270.

4

read as parody,” she notes that Drezner’s targets in IR are relatively traditional while various

critical approaches are simply ignored:

“…the book actually scarcely mentions critical theory, post-modernism, feminist theory

or pretty much any scholarship falling on the ‘reflectivist’ side of the discipline, much

less utilizes their tools….if I have one critique of this otherwise brilliant little book, it’s

that as a description of ‘the field’ of IR, TIPZ’ relentless focus on rationalist theory to the

near-exclusion of identities, language or embodiment frankly bites.”9

Drezner himself recently acknowledged that “one of the things that's gnawed at me since the first

edition of the book came out was that I didn't talk a lot about more critical perspectives of

international relations theory.”10 Robert Blanton has suggested some ways that constructivist and

feminist concerns can be tied to the study of zombies in the IR classroom, but he does not offer a

means by which to use zombies to offer a wider and reflective critique of the field.11

In his contribution to the discussion of Drezner’s book and the larger debate about

zombies and IR, Vikash Yadav stresses an important critical theoretical concern. Yadav writes

that the nature of a zombie threat and what it represents is not especially innovative in the field,

primarily because it reinforces traditional IR thinking about security threats. “I do not see the

discussions about zombies as a type of new or out-of-the-box thinking. If anything, the

9 Charli Carpenter, “Dan Drezner, Postmodernist,” The Duck of Minerva, February 7, 2011. Available at

http://www.whiteoliphaunt.com/duckofminerva/2011/02/dan-drezner-postmodernist.html. Reviewer

Adam Weinstein agrees with this assessment, as he claims that Drezner’s survey of the field is “prone to

give short shrift to IR theories he clearly disagrees with [citing social constructivism], and to softpedal on

those with which he sympathizes just a bit.” Weinstein, “Egypt, Afghanistan, Iraq…Zombies?” Mother

Jones online, February 7, 2011. Available at http://www.motherjones.com/media/2011/02/egypt-

afghanistan-iraq-zombies?page=2. 10 Daniel W. Drezner, “On Beauty Pageants, Gender and the Living Dead,” Foreign Policy Blog,

November 16, 2013. Available at

http://drezner.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/11/16/on_miss_universe_zombies_and_gender. 11 Blanton, 2013, pp. 7-9.

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discussions of zombies that I have noted so far are completely ‘in-the-box’ thinking.”12 Yadov,

perhaps with Hobbes in mind, argues that the kind of “apocalyptic thinking” employed in the

zombie literature “has been a feature of IR theorizing for over a hundred years.” Max Brooks, the

author of World War Z, agrees that zombies are a means to think about doomsday scenarios,

though he believes that this is a virtue: “Zombies are an apocalyptic threat, we are living in times

of apocalyptic anxiety (and) we need a vessel in which to coalesce those anxieties….The zombie

is a way for us to explore massive disasters in a safe way.”13 Yadav, in contrast, clarifies the

problem from the perspective of scholars who espouse critical theoretical concerns: “apocalyptic

thinking in the discipline follows familiar modes of articulation that are easily conflated…the

zombie discourse facilitates this conflation.” Thus, Yadav “would hypothesize that apocalyptic

thinking functions to reassert the relevance of dominant modes of theorizing; apocalyptic

thinking disciplines the discipline. Apocalyptic thinking is deeply conservative; it reasserts the

relevance of theories which protect the status quo.” Neoliberal scholars have long argued that

IR’s realists are especially prone to emphasizing worst-case security threats in building their

pessimistic theory, while constructivists additionally explain that the worst-case assumptions

typical of a security dilemma are but one possible social structure of international politics.14

Can comedic and satirical stories about zombies provide a means by which to think about

alternative assumptions, outcomes, and structures of IR? This paper will explore the critical

12 Vikash Yadav, “Apocalyptic Thinking in IR,” The Duck of Minerva, February 19, 2011. Available at

http://www.whiteoliphaunt.com/duckofminerva/2011/02/apocalyptic-thinking-in-ir.html. 13 Quoted in David Sirota, “Zombie Zeitgeist: Why Undead Corpses Are Dominating at the Box Office,”

Mother Jones online, October 12, 2009. Available at

http://www.motherjones.com/media/2009/10/zombie-zeitgeist-why-undead-corpses-are-dominating-box-

office. 14 See Robert O. Keohane and Lisa L. Martin “The promise of institutionalist theory,” 20 International

Security, Summer 1995, p. 43; and Alexander Wendt, “Constructing international politics,” 20

International security, Summer 1995, p. 73.

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theoretical potential of studying zombies in the classroom. Rather than relying upon heroic or

tragic narratives, however, the paper will emphasize the value of comedic and satirical zombie

tales as told in popular films like Shaun of the Dead and especially Zombieland. Before

examining the narrative innovations offered in those films, the paper will first explain the value

of teaching IR with film and then will review the narrative constraints of tragedies and heroic

adventures. Again, both traditional IR and standard zombie stories emphasize these narratives.

Teaching with Film

In a recent article, Stefan Engert and Alexander Spencer argue that films can be a

particularly effective means of teaching about international relations, though they acknowledge

that the “idea of using popular art in the form of films to explain/understand and teach

international politics is still at the margins in IR.”15 Like most other scholars who have published

on the use of film to teach international politics, Engert and Spencer reference a good deal of

pedagogical literature that identifies the effectiveness of film as a teaching tool. For instance,

film promotes retention of knowledge and information. Studies reveal that students retain about

half of the material that they see and hear, but only 10% of material they read. In part, this could

be because films evoke strong emotional responses that can capture students’ attention.16

Students are readily engaged by film – even if the film addresses a difficult subject in an unusual

manner.17 Additionally, because of their cultural experiences, students have likely already “been

15 Stefan Engert and Alexander Spencer, “International Relations at the Movies: Teaching and Learning

about International Politics through Film,” 17 Perspectives. Review of International Affairs, No. 1, 2009,

83. 16 Robert W. Gregg, “The Ten Best Films about International Relations,” World Policy Journal, Summer

1999, p. 129. 17 See Dan Lindley. "What I Learned Since I Stopped Worrying and Studied the Movie: A Teaching

Guide to Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove,” 34 PS: Political Science and Politics, September 2001, pp.

663-7.

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socialized through all sorts of visual channels” and “have become inherently good at dealing

with visual material.”18 Movies are also said to be valuable in the classroom because they serve

as case studies and common reference points. Fortuitously, the typical “text” is relatively short,

making it readily consumed and absorbed within the parameters of one or two class sessions.19

Additionally, films can help illustrate complicated abstract ideas by making their application

more concrete. Indeed, by studying, evaluating, and discussing the fictional narratives rooted in

films, students may actually be encouraged to think much more critically and participate more

meaningfully in dialogue about IR theory.20 For all of these reasons, movies can promote

engaged and active learning in the classroom. They might also serve to help reduce classroom

hierarchies given that the art form is inherently subject to multiple possible readings and personal

interpretations. Even non-majors might feel engaged since works of popular culture “provide

students with a familiar ‘anchor’ through which to better understand core issues and concepts.”21

On the other hand, Engert and Spencer as well as other scholars have likewise identified a

number of potential downsides to employing film in the classroom.22 Obviously, any time spent

viewing a film is potentially valuable time not spent pursuing other activities, such as lectures,

discussions, group work, or student presentations. While viewing a film, students may become

passive consumers, as they have likely been socialized to experience film as an entertainment

18 Engert and Spencer, 2009, 85. 19 See Soleiman M. Kiasatpour, “The Internet and Film: Teaching Middle East Politics Interactively,” 32

PS: Political Science and Politics, March 1999, pp. 83-89. 20 Julie Webber, “Independence Day as a Cosmopolitan Moment: Teaching International Relations,” 6

International Studies Perspectives, August 2005, pp. 374-92; and Cynthia Weber, “The Highs and Lows

of Teaching IR Theory: Using Popular Film for Theoretical Critique,” 2 International Studies

Perspectives, August 2001, pp. 281-87. 21 Blaton, 2013, p. 2. 22 See, for example, Michael Kuchinsky, “Teaching with Media,” The International Studies Encyclopedia,

ed. by Robert A Denemark (Blackwell Reference Online, 2010). Kuchinsky also reviews the arguments in

behalf of utilizing film in the classroom.

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medium. Indeed, it is possible that students might not consider a class or section of a course to be

altogether serious if films are employed. Moreover, films cannot thoroughly explain the complex

causes and consequences of events and may reflect a director’s personal biases. Given the

prominence of Hollywood generally and English language films specifically, these biases may

reflect western cultural dominance. According to Safia Swimelar’s empirical study of her

personal classroom experiences, films can unfortunately “sensationalize, simplify, and

depoliticize” important disciplinary concerns.23

Overall, however, Swimelar’s qualitative and quantitative empirical research findings

about the use of film in her classroom generally support the purported benefits. “The project has

shown that a conscientious use of film in the class can have positive outcomes on student

interest, engagement, understanding, interpreting, and more.”24 These findings are consistent

with the anecdotal evidence reported by a growing number of scholars who have written about

film and television in the IR classroom in recent years.

IR Theory and Traditional Narratives

Engert and Spencer (2009) outline four principal purposes for employing film as a

teaching tool. The first two practices are likely the mostly common in the IR classroom – films

can inform about events and issues. Historical films such as Thirteen Days or Saving Private

Ryan are often employed to teach about particular events, while topical films like The Lord of

War or Hotel Rwanda explore issues of importance, such as the gray-market trade in small arms

23 Safia Swimelar. “Visualizing International Relations: Assessing Student Learning Through Film,”

14 International Studies Perspectives No. 1, 2013, p. 16. 24 Swimelar, 2013, p. 37.

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and genocide. Third, films can also be used to teach cultural identities and narratives. For

instance, Engert and Spencer suggest that Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers and Letters

from Iwo Jima could be studied to reveal American and Japanese perspectives of Iwo Jima.

Finally, movies can be employed to teach IR theory, which is the approach used in this

paper. Perhaps the most prominent work in this vein is by Cynthia Weber, who has authored a

textbook dedicated to this purpose. Weber argues that “popular films enable us to access what IR

theory says, how it plots its story, and how all this together gives us a particular vision of the

world. In effect then, using popular film to help us think about IR theory seems to work because

of some of the similarities between how films tell stories and how IR theory tells stories.”25 For

example Weber recommends using Lord of the Flies to teach about anarchy and realism,

Independence Day to teach about liberalism, and Wag the Dog to teach constructivism. Given the

recent “narrative turn” in IR theorizing, employing film to teach IR theory seems like an

especially worthwhile endeavor. 26 Hidemi Suganami argues that “there is really only one way to

give an account of social events or phenomena – to present a narrative.” International relations

(IR) scholars, he concludes, “ought to recognize the central importance of narrative as a means

of comprehension.”27

By taking the narrative turn in the classroom, IR teachers can draw upon well-known

tools from literary theory. This means that viewers of film can look for specific kinds of stories

and characters with somewhat predictable meanings. Instructors can help students understand IR

25 Cynthia Weber, International Relations Theory, A Critical Introduction, 3rd ed., (NY: Routledge,

2010).p. 225. 26 See, for instance, Hidemi Suganami, “Narrative explanation and international relations: Back to

basics,” 37 Millennium-Journal of International Studies, No. 2, 2008, pp. 327-356; and Torbjørn L.

Knutsen, “Twentieth-Century Stories,” 39 Journal of Peace Research, No. 1, 2002, pp. 119-127. 27 Hidemi Suganami, “Agents, Structures, Narratives,” European Journal of International Relations, 5(3),

1999, 371, 381.

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once they understand the basic kinds of narratives – and their parallels in IR theory. Erik

Ringmar argues that “understanding stories…is the task of literary theory more than anything

else; it is with the help of literary theory that we can analyze texts and relations between texts.”

He continues:

“As literary theorists have pointed out, from the ancient Greeks onward all narratives are

emplotted in predictable fashion; they are constructed according to a certain narrative

type. This is why the story grabs and holds our attention, and why we as readers or as

listeners are able to make sense of it. Although, in practice, there are mixed forms, there

are nevertheless no more than four main narrative types: romance, tragedy, comedy, and

satire.”28

Each of these four narrative types features at least some distinctive situations, characters, and

plotlines.

Among the four standard narrative types recognized by literary theorists, IR scholars very

commonly employ two of them. As Drezner explained with zombie stories, IR narratives tend to

emphasize heroic adventures or tragic endings. First, heroic adventures (often traditionally

referred to as romantic narratives) typically feature a main character pursuing some sort of

valiant quest.29 Adventure narratives normally focus on a central hero who faces a dangerous

journey on the pathway to a meaningful conquest. The protagonist successfully navigates

through various challenges during the adventure and then faces a major confrontation with a

dangerous villain. The hero achieves victory over this antagonist and is typically exalted in the

28 Erik Ringmar. “Inter-Texual Relations The Quarrel Over the Iraq War as a Conflict between Narrative

Types,” 41 Cooperation and Conflict, No. 4, 2006, p. 404. 29 Despite the “romantic” label, the terminology does not ordinarily refer to the kind of tale commonly

called a “love story,” though a romantic adventure could involve an expedition to reunite a hero with a

true love partner after they have been physically separated from one another.

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end of the tale. Such plots are quite common in dragon-slaying and chivalric stories set in the

Middle Ages, tales of the American old west, and science fictional exploits in outer space. Actors

John Wayne and Harrison Ford played romantic heroes in a large number of Hollywood films.

Characteristically, the romantic hero employs both violence and cunning in order to complete a

quest successfully. Many zombie stories are structured in this way as well, including the filmed

version of World War Z.

The field of IR has a relatively strong tradition of scholars and practitioners telling

romantic adventure stories. For example, this trope is commonly used by scholars of

international relations to explain American intervention into both world wars of the twentieth

century, the end of the cold war, the spread of democracy in the past few decades, etc.30 As

Ringmar summarizes: “this is how Wilsonians, free-market enthusiasts, anti-Communist

crusaders, Greenpeace activists, Esperanto-speakers and anti-globalization protesters usually talk

about world affairs.”31 A significant portion of these stories are told as struggles between forces

of good and evil, with a wicked foe typically defeated in the coda.32 The stories conclude happily

with measurable progress. Generally, these optimistic IR story-tellers can be viewed as liberals.

In contrast to romantic adventures, tragedies are heroic challenges that end in failure.

Classically, a tragedy has been a deadly serious dramatic story focused on the downfall of a

prominent – even aristocratic – protagonist. The hero’s demise is typically caused by his or her

30 See, for example, Walter Russell Mead, Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It

Changed the World (Routledge, 2002); Francis Fukuyama, The end of history and the last man (Simon

and Schuster, 2006); and Samuel P. Huntington, The third wave: Democratization in the late twentieth

century, (University of Oklahoma, 1993). 31 Ringmar, 2006, 405. 32 The war on terror was framed in this way. See Riikka Kuusisto, “Comic Plots as Conflict Resolution

Strategy,” 15 European Journal of International Relations, No. 4, 2009, p. 609. Kuusisto prefers the term

epic, but her survey of romantic stories includes tales about the Persian Gulf War of 1991 and the 1999

NATO air strikes against Serbia to save Kosovo.

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own human fallibility, often developed in the story as an inherent character trait and flaw. In

some tragedies, the hero’s collapse could be attributed to a greater power, such as fate or a

hopeless situation. As befitting a noble, the tragic tale is ordinarily set in the “Great Hall” or on

the battlefield, and the tragic decline is initiated by some sort of critical test. The story turns on

this conflict, which could be the source of tremendous torment for the protagonist. Throughout

these dramatic narratives, tragic heroes are said to be “passionately egocentric” as they “answer

only to themselves.” They can thus be viewed as "radically unsociable beings” willing “to suffer

in the service of their own vision of themselves.”33 The dramatic plot highlights the virtual

inevitability of the hero’s collapse, generally his (or her) death, given the circumstances. The

main character’s reaction to the conflict typically worsens the situation, though before death the

protagonist customarily discovers that attempts to control and resolve the conflict have actually

compounded it.

Consistent with this narrative, many IR realists acknowledge having a "genuinely tragic"

(and typically Hobbesian) vision of international political life.34 They typically dismiss the

romantic idea that international politics involves struggles between good and evil forces. Rather,

every state is viewed as a self-interested actor capable of doing whatever might be necessary to

achieve its goals. Realists pessimistically see a world comprised of like-minded risk-averse states

that are fearful of potential physical threats posed by real or imagined rivals.35 States are

33 Ian Johnston, “Introductory Lecture,” prepared for English 366: Studies in Shakespeare, Malaspina

University College, Nanaimo, BC. This text is in the public domain, released June 1999. It was revised

August 1, 2000, and again in December 2000. Available at http://www.oneeyedman.net/school-

archive/classes/fulltext/www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/eng366/lectures/lecture1.htm. 34 John J. Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (NY: WW Norton, 2001), p. 3. For an

interesting overview of realist views, see Michael Spirtas, “A House Divided: Tragedy and Evil in Realist

Theory,” Security Studies, 5, 1996, 385-423. 35 See Shiping Tang, “Fear in International Politics: Two Positions,” International Studies Review 10, no.

3, 2008, pp. 451-471; and Mearsheimer 2001, pp 32, 42-6.

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essentially doomed to suffer the consequences of preparing for, and engaging in, recurring acts

of competition and violence. These outcomes are almost uncontrollably perpetuated by the

security dilemma. As a result, realist scholars tell compelling and dramatic stories centered upon

states stuck in unfortunate situations that ultimately require them to confront the limits of their

power. In his book, The Tragic Vision of Politics, Richard Ned Lebow claims that the “core

insight of tragedy,” which he found to be central to classic texts penned by Thucydides, Carl von

Clausewitz, and Hans Morgenthau, was “the need to know one’s own limits.”36 Stories about

actors who fail to recognize their limits often end with calamity — the rise and fall of great

powers is a familiar plot in IR. Frequently, realists explain that great powers fall because the

reach of their ambition tragically exceeds their grasp, as understood in the notion of “imperial

overstretch.”37 On a smaller scale, tragic realist stories might simply explain the failure of a

central power to exert its will over a weaker entity, such as the British Empire in India, France

and the United States in Vietnam, or the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. As Drezner notes, many

zombie stories end tragically in human calamity. Indeed, the pathway to a zombie apocalypse

tale is typically littered with human mistakes or flaws – scientific, military, or even political.38

Comedy, Satire and Critical Theory

In this paper, I argue that by focusing on romantic adventure and tragic zombie stories,

IR scholars devote insufficient attention to many interesting and important actors, actions, and

circumstances in global politics. Moreover, romantic and tragic narratives fail to evaluate

36 Lebow, The Tragic Vision of Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 2003), p. 309. 37 Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict (New

York: Random House, 1988). 38 See also Kyle William Bishop, “Vacationing in Zombieland: The Classical Functions of the Modern

Zombie Comedy,” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 22, no. 1 (2011), pp. 24-38.

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critically some of the key actors, actions, and circumstances involved in many stories about

global politics. My position is therefore not a postmodern plea for instructors to embellish the

classroom with diverse and perhaps contradictory alternative narrative perspectives. Instead, my

call for comedy and especially satire intends to emphasize Frankfurt School critical theory.39 All

too often, IR scholars see this form of critical theory as “fantasy theory” employed to dream

about a utopian “fantasy world.”40 However, instructors willing to consider fantasy and science

fiction films in the classroom might be willing to take this theoretical leap as well. It would

likely be to the great benefit of students, helping them learn to think critically using the engaging

and active-learning methods promoted by the study of film.

As developed by influential founding members of the Frankfurt School, a critical theory

should be simultaneously explanatory, normative, and practical. Like realists, critical IR theorists

generally tell stories explaining the importance of materially powerful actors pursuing their

selfish interests and thereby often determining global political outcomes. However, unlike

realists, critical theorists also make overtly normative points critiquing both the outcomes of

international power struggles and the political processes that make those outcomes possible.

Critical IR theorists reject the legitimacy of outcomes built exclusively on the strength of

material power or coercion. Indeed, these scholars overtly seek emancipatory change.

Fundamentally, critical theory is oriented around the goal of liberating individuals from the

dominant and often arbitrary forces that shape their lives. The aim is progressive political

39 As employed here, critical theory is directly inspired by the Frankfurt School’s commitment to

emancipatory social change, reflexivity, and human agency in the form of practical reasoning. No attempt

is made to integrate poststructuralist perspectives influenced by French social theorist Michel Foucault

and others. Postmodernists find power and knowledge to be virtually inseparable; thus, any prescriptive

application of ideas, regardless of how widely shared, effectively endorses a particular and likely

problematic regime of truth. 40 Randall L Schweller, “Fantasy theory,” Review of International Studies 25(1), 1999, 150.

15

transformations that will upend entrenched centers of power, with desired change described in

terms of human freedom and security. To that end, critical theorists seek in practice to identify

and explain the fissures, inconsistencies, and hypocrisies embedded in any given political system

and encourage the development of social pressures that could then change public consciousness

and make alternative normative and structural outcomes possible. Ideally, they seek to identify

viable pathways by which political communities can consensually develop and abide by

legitimate policies and social norms—and reject illegitimate policies and practices built on

selfish interests and/or crass use of material power.41 Thus, critical theorists embrace the

recursive and reflexive notions from social constructivist theorizing, but with strong normative

and practical dimensions.

Comedic and especially satirical narratives align quite well with the critical theory

project.42 In terms of explanatory potential, characters in comedic narratives are embedded in a

broader social context than are tragic or romantic protagonists, and may well be ordinary people

rather than heroic figures.43 The problems of the regular people in comedies are also rather

ordinary, but the audience approvingly views the ascendance of the central character's fortunes.

The satisfaction for the audiences comes in observing success for deserving people. Comedic

narratives typically feature what Kuusisto calls “a cheerful atmosphere” and must end happily,

often in a wedding.44 “Stated most simply, the comic vision celebrates the individual's

participation in a community as the most important part of life….This form of story…is an

41 German social theorist Jürgen Habermas and many other critical theorists embrace discourse ethics or

deliberative democracy as means by which to develop consensual norms. 42 Tom Boland argues “that the consequences of critical comedy do not necessarily emancipate, but do

indicate critical sensibility.” See Boland, “Critical Comedy: Satire, Absurdity and Ireland’s Economic

Crash,” Irish Political Studies, 27(3), September 2012, 440. 43 See Louiza Odysseos, “Laughing Matters: Peace, Democracy and the Challenge of the Comic

Narrative,” Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 30(3), 2001, 720-23. 44 Kuusisto, 2009, 613.

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endorsement of the value in the communal life we share together and of the importance of

adjusting our individual demands on life to suit community demands.”45 This characteristic

aligns with critical theory’s transformational emancipatory purpose and commitment to human

security and community. Ordinary people are involved in global politics in numerous ways, but

their stories are rarely told or even examined by most IR theorists. Often, of course, the masses

suffer dearly as a consequence of the actions of powerful figures. Ordinary people are often the

primary victims of human rights violations and genocide, they fight as soldiers in the wars

managed by elites, and they work the menial manufacturing or service jobs at the base of the

global economy. As the comical films Life is Beautiful and The Great Dictator illustrate, comedy

– especially when paired with satirical narratives – can simultaneously explain and critique

dreadful elite decisions, broadly illustrate the suffering of ordinary people, and nonetheless allow

for the possibility of regular people finding their happy ending. Zombie comedies provide the

same opportunity as those earlier films about World War II and the holocaust, invoking both

laughter and pointed critique amidst apocalyptic horror.

Indeed, various forms of comedy allow for direct or indirect critique of an established

idea, order, or practice. Most notably, satire is viewed as a particularly sharp means by which to

offer criticism, often with the implied or explicit purpose of improving the norms and practices

of powerful actors and institutions. As Kuusisto explains, however, comedic narratives in general

are a more subtle and reflexive corrective form as they typically feature characters who

overcome obstacles to happiness in inventive, resourceful, clever or crafty manner. “The comic

45 Johnston, 2000. See also David L. Simpson, “Comedy and Tragedy,” lecture notes from Spring 2002

course on “’True Love’: Men vs. Women in Ancient and Modern Culture,” The School for New

Learning, DePaul University, Chicago, IL. Available February 6, 2010 at

http://condor.depaul.edu/~dsimpson/tlove/comic-tragic.html.

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plot amounts to a willingness to see conflicts and adversaries in a non-deterministic way, to a

certain flexibility in terms of appropriate means, and to a readiness – at least in principle – to

engage in self-criticism.”46 Kenneth Burke made this same point about reflexivity in a classic

text, “the comic frame should enable people to be observers of themselves, while acting. Its

ultimate would not be passiveness, but maximum consciousness. One would ‘transcend’ himself

by noting his own foibles.”47 According to Kuusisto’s analysis, comedic narratives are already

commonly applied in IR under specific circumstances. She writes that a comedic framework is

the “standard solution of the Western leaders to ordinary disagreements among friends, [or]

problems with ‘small foes’…there is usually room for negotiation and some compromise. A

desire for mutual understanding is publicly pronounced and a wide range of options are officially

considered.” 48

Beyond this restrained form of critique, both comedic and satirical narratives offer the

possibility of deepening the normative aspirations of IR theory by more intensely mocking

heroic characters ordinarily at the center of IR stories and even challenging the goals and

situations taken-for-granted in romantic and tragic tales. Andrew Scott points out that satire is

“the most directly political of comic forms.” He continues: “Satire aims to denounce folly and

vice and urge ethical and political reform through the subjection of ideas to humorous analysis.

In the best instances, it takes its subject matter from the heart of political life or cultural anxiety,

re-framing issues at an ironic distance that enables us to revisit fundamental questions that have

been obscured by rhetoric, personal interests, or realpolitik.”49 To achieve this purpose, the

46 Kuusisto, 2009, 616. 47 Kenneth Burke, Attitudes Toward History, 3rd edition (Berkeley: University of California, 1937, 1984)

171. 48 Kuusisto, 2009, 614. 49 Andrew Scott, Comedy (NY: Routledge, 2005), p. 109.

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satirical narrative form involves “the employment in speaking or writing, of sarcasm, irony,

ridicule, etc., in denouncing, exposing, or deriding vice, folly, abuses or evils of any kind.”50

Powerful or wealthy actors are especially common targets in satirical narratives and they are

typically revealed to be pompous and/or ridiculous. Specifically, in IR, these characters might

be ridiculed for justifying their selfish actions with empty slogans about the virtue of democracy,

the prospect of economic progress, or the provision of security. Amber Day emphasizes the

subversive or emancipatory purpose that contemporary social critics seek when they employ

satire “to draw attention to hypocrisies and ironies in the supposedly serious world of political

discourse and to advocate for alternative formulations of the issues of the day.”51 In particular,

satirists “make extensive use of irony, of saying the opposite of what the author and the audience

know is (or ought to be) the case, in order to draw attention to an inconsistency or

contradiction.”52 Effectively, satirists work much like critical theorists, scrutinizing weaknesses,

errors, and shortcomings of their subjects. Satirists might also feign approval of their targets even

while mocking them. Though a political actor’s intent can be difficult to gauge, an ironic

situation or environment features “a contrast between a given expectation and the ’reality’ of the

situation in which this expectation is realized.”53 Put differently, by examining characters’

motives and actions, as well as the consequences of this behavior, critical IR theorists confront

the inconsistent and hypocritical justifications for any given status quo and encourage the

50 See Matthew Hodgart, Satire (NY: McGraw-Hill, 1969), 7. Hodgart attributes this definition to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. 51 Amber Day, Satire and Dissent; Interventions in Contemporary Political Debate (Bloomington:

Indiana University, 2011), 5. 52 Ian Hall, “The satiric vision of politics: Ethics, interests and disorders,” European Journal of

International Relations, 2012, 6. See also Harold Bloom, “Volume Introduction,” in Dark Humor, ed. by

Harold Bloom and Blake Hobby (NY: Infobase, 2010), xv. 53 Albert Katz, “Commentary on ‘Does an ironic situation favor an ironic interpretation?’” in Cognitive

Poetics Goals, Gains and Gaps. Ed by Geert Broˆne and Jeroen Vandaelep (New York: Mouton de

Gruyter, 2009), 401.

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development of social pressures for emancipatory change. As Odysseos argues, “the comic is a

perspective which is valid for human understanding, for the practice of critique and

reconstitution of the possibilities of the everyday.”54

Zombie Comedy in Film

Recent comedic zombie films reflect both the concerns of ordinary people and subversive

ideas about the status quo. To begin, these zombie comedies have very clearly focused on the

daily distresses of regular people – and typically offer them a communal feeling and happy

ending amidst the changes wrought by the horror of zombie attacks. The pairing of overt humor

with these endings generally sets these movies apart from the filmed stories like World War Z

featuring heroic conquests over zombies. In any case, in almost all these films, the lead

characters, who are developed as ordinary people, spend a fair amount of screen time thinking

about and acting to improve their love lives, family situations, or communities. For example,

both Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland, two of the most popular films in the genre, feature a

great deal of humor, relatively happy endings, and strong hints that the main characters have

fallen in love, strengthened their families, and returned to (a new) normalcy. Indeed, both stories

involve significant and humorous love-story plotlines that help define them as comedies in a

classic sense.55 Brad Pitt’s character Gerry Lane occasionally worries about his family in World

War Z, but that is the background condition for the plot, not the main story.

In Zombieland, until the ending, the four central characters are somewhat anonymously

identified only by their cities of origin (Columbus, Little Rock, Tallahassee, and Wichita).

54 Odysseos, 2001, 731. 55 See also Bishop, 2011.

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Tallahassee insists upon this anonymity so that they do not form attachments; yet, the new

acquaintances do in fact form fairly strong ties through their day-to-day adventures. While the

“new normal” of Zombieland has turned their old lives upside down, the appropriate characters

find in one another many of the familial or communal ties they have lost or never really felt –

including parents, children, and romantic partners. Prior to meeting the others, former college

student Columbus admits that he never really had any friends or much of a family. Early in the

film, he declares, “My whole life, all I’d ever wanted was to find a girl and fall in love.”56

Tallahassee is revealed to have lost his young son. The two main female characters, sisters,

aspire to visit Pacific Playland, an amusement park ordinarily frequented by families with

children, and that is the setting for the movie’s final scene. In the film’s last moments, the older

of the two females reveals her name (Krista) to Columbus and kisses him, signaling the

establishment of an even more intimate bond. By the end, the main characters have not merely

learned how to survive in a disastrous world, but have also learned how to thrive in new

(surrogate) family relationships. Columbus reports about the three others, “those smart girls in

that big black truck [Wichita and Little Rock] and that big guy in that snakeskin jacket

[Tallahasse]…they were the closest to something I had always wanted but never really had. A

family. I trusted them and they trusted me.”57

Similarly, Shaun of the Dead features most of the tropes of comedy, including the classic

emphasis on home and family situations. The main (title) character is a flawed and non-heroic

man who is struggling at work and in his love life, but has a loyal best friend (Ed) who lives on

Shaun’s couch. While the story is set amidst a zombie infestation, many of the plot developments

56 See “Zombieland Script - Dialogue Transcript,” available at http://www.script-o-

rama.com/movie_scripts/z/zombieland-script-transcript-zombies.html.

57 “Zombieland Script - Dialogue Transcript.”

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are played for laughs using the characters’ pre-established identities and relationships. Indeed,

Shaun’s slacker lifestyle makes him at first unable to notice the zombie infestation despite

several unusual confrontations with infected people. Thanks to the zombie attack, Shaun is

forced to reconcile with his estranged stepfather and must poignantly kill his own mother after

she becomes infected. Most significantly, Shaun strengthens his relationship with his girlfriend,

Liz, though prior to the infestation he had failed even to plan an appropriate anniversary event.

The film does not end in as an heroic adventure story might, in the immediate aftermath of the

confrontation in the pub between the main characters and the zombies. In fact, that scene only

concludes when the small group is rescued by the British army. The film ends in a home and

family setting where uninfected people have returned to their lives and communities. Zombies

who were formerly friends are now apparently kept around for entertainment or labor – much

like family pets or work animals.58

Other zombie comedies feature a similar emphasis on family, love, and personal

relationships. While some critics viewed Warm Bodies as a familiar story based loosely on

William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” the story is not by any measure a tragedy. The

young main characters in Warm Bodies form aa affectionate relationship between human and

zombie. Indeed, their budding love demonstrates that humans should understand zombies

differently than they have up to that point in the story, creating the potential for a transformation

in their relationship – as well as a physical transformation in the “warming” zombies. During

eight years of zombie apocalypse, humans walled off a city and guarded it against external attack

by enemy zombies. After the main characters in Warm Bodies fall for one another, the wall is

destroyed, signaling the possibility of a new coexistence and assimilation. In the classroom, this

58 The zombies in Fido are similarly employed as workers, controlled by electronic collars. The ending of

Fido is also relatively happy and new family ties are formed between humans and zombies.

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new understanding and relationship could be mapped on to many parallel in-group/out-group

situations from world politics, involving, for example, people of conflicting ethnicities,

nationalities, or religious faiths.

Even more fundamentally, all of these films disrupt the zombie genre by creating

characters, situations, and narratives that are not altogether centered on the apocalyptic nature of

the situation. Typically, as discussed earlier, zombie stories take place in anarchical conditions as

domestic order has been disrupted if not destroyed. People use violence selfishly and somewhat

indiscriminately, seeking to save themselves in an environment they view as quite threatening.

The level of trust is low and the level of fear is high.59 A zombie-infested world offers a near-

perfect parallel to the international politics described by realist scholars, though it also offers

plenty of opportunity for heroic (liberal) adventurers to save the day. These are the ideas featured

by Drezner and many other IR scholars who discuss zombies.

Yet, comedic zombie films do not tell stories focused exclusively on basic survival, as

already demonstrated. Moreover, the threat from zombies is often played for laughs and is

otherwise undermined by the way it is viewed outside of traditional security frames. At times,

these films seem to treat violence in the same comic-book style that Quentin Tarantino employs

in his movies.60 Zombieland was criticized for its failings as a horror film and includes slapstick-

style footage of a “Zombie Kill of the Week,” complete with the main character’s comical punch

line. The zombies in most of these films seem relatively easy to slay and do not apparently pose

an apocalyptic menace. Obviously, the zombie outbreaks reflect at least some failure of

59 Kyle Bishop, “Dead Man Still Walking, Explaining the Zombie Renaissance,” Journal of Popular Film

and Television 37, no. 1 (2009), pp. 16-25. 60 See Nicholas M. Kelly, “Zombies Go to the Amusement Park: Entertainment, Violence, and the 21st

Century Zombie in Zombieland and Left 4 Dead 2,” Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies 14, no. 1 (2013):

pp. 85-6.

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established order, but even in Zombieland, which may feature the most complete societal

breakdown, the characters construct their own rules and understandings in order to cope with

their situations somewhat peacefully and cooperatively. Throughout Zombieland, in fact,

Columbus narrates a list of personal rules of conduct. He arguably creates a rules-based order

and the validity of these rules is occasionally illustrated with comical zombie attacks shown in

flashbacks. Moreover, many of these rules seem mucyh more appropriate to the kind of security

community favored by critical theorists than to a realist self-help world wherein the most

powerful actors call the shots and write the rules. Columbus’s rules focus on the need for

partners, buddies, and the advantages of avoiding or escaping violent confrontations with

zombies. One rule is “don’t be a hero,” though Columbus reverses that to “be a hero” in the

film’s final scene. In Warm Bodies, before the former enemies are transformed into friends and

lovers living in a common security community, they become allies, united against the so-called

Boneys, zombie forms that have altogether lost their flesh and human identities. In Shaun of the

Dead, the nature of the threat is implicitly minimized by the fact that a fairly strong order is

constructed in only six months. In the language of critical theory, these films demonstrate that

even a zombie apocalypse is not an immutable condition, it is subject to emancipatory change

built upon human agency.

Zombieland additionally satirizes the position of elites in a chaotic zombie-infested

world, thanks to the appearance of Bill Murray playing himself. The four central characters find

Murray after traveling to Los Angeles and looking specifically for his home as a tourist

attraction. In contrast to the four new friends, Murray essentially lives alone in his well-stocked

Hollywood mansion and disguises himself as a zombie so that he can have a daily life outside his

dwelling. By disguising himself as a zombie, Murray is even able to play golf, an elite sport. It

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would appear that Murray’s privileged position has been maintained even through a zombie

apocalypse. Indeed, Murray might even be more advantaged given his unique access to various

resources and his ability to act like a zombie. Yet, Murray’s lifestyle quickly proves

unsustainable, as he pays dearly for his behavior. Specifically, Murray pretends to be a

threatening zombie inside his own home and is shot and killed by Columbus who does not

realize that Murray is simply playing a prank. In a zombie-infested world, the material

advantages of wealth and fame are not necessarily enduring, the film seems to suggest, and may

well be quite unimportant compared to the social power of friendship and camaraderie shared by

the four members of the new surrogate family. Together, they are able to fulfill their individual

dreams in a way that Murray is not.

Conclusion

In recent years, a growing number of IR scholars have enthusiastically studied popular

culture, especially as a novel means by which to explore international relations theory. Scholars

have produced numerous journal articles, book chapters, and books examining the characters and

situations developed in a host of popular novels, films, and television programs. The dominant

work in this genre seems to be Daniel Drezner’s Theory of International Politics and Zombies,

though many of the scholarly efforts utilize works of fantasy or science fiction. Drezner argues

that zombies provide a powerful metaphor for thinking about diverse contemporary threats. As

Drezner and others note, the apocalyptic situations people face in zombie infestations provide

ample opportunity to explore heroic success stories as well as catastrophic doomsday scenarios.

Indeed, scholars who have taken the “narrative turn” in IR would note the parallels between

these two kinds of tales and liberal and realist stories about IR.

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However, critics have noted that Drezner’s work is less useful for thinking about

reflectivist approaches, including critical theory. This paper focuses primarily on popular film

narratives as potential tools for student engagement with critical theory. Various instructors have

already embraced this medium to promote active-learning in the classroom. In any case, this

paper argues that zombie comedies like Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, and Warm Bodies

provide an interesting alternative narrative perspective to the typical apocalyptic zombie story.

As is typical of comedies, these films focus on ordinary people and emphasize aspects of their

regular lives — arguably parallel to the human security agenda. Though set amid the societal

destruction after zombie infestations, these comedic stories center upon rather ordinary struggles

pertaining to domestic human relations. All end fairly happily, with the development of new

familial and communal relations, as well as new or strengthened romantic pairings. When

Zombieland examines a real-life elite figure, the film characteristically satirizes and critiques his

lifestyle. Moreover, because they infuse comedy into situations common to the horror genre, all

these films work as subversive satire, reflecting a critical rather than an entrenched

understanding of fear and threats.