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This article has been published in: Ocula 35, Zombesque. Sociosemiotics of a cultural epidemic

author: Alessandro Perissinotto ( Dipartimento di Filosofia e Scienze dell'educazione, Università di Torino, IT)

In limine vitae. Revived vs Undead

language: italian

abstract: In European culture, the figure of the Zombie represents a relatively recent import. Infinitely older, however, is the story that binds our imagination, our religious sentiment, our literary, musical, and, more generally, artistic production to resurrection and awakening from apparent death. This essay aims to show how the revenant, returning from the boundary between life and death without having truly crossed it, is endowed with new powers (between the human and the superhuman) and, most importantly, possesses a will that he usually directs towards the redress of an injustice. In contrast, the Zombie, who also shares the experience of the threshold of life with the revenant, appears as a character devoid of any will, repugnant, and an enemy of humanity. The investigation, while not neglecting the Holy Scriptures or great literature, will focus its attention on popular literature, comparing the role of the “awakening” in C. Invernizio (Il bacio di una morta) and E.A. Poe (Thou Art the Man, The Tell-Tale Heart, but also the recent Netflix series).

citation information: Alessandro Perissinotto, In limine vitae. Redivivi vs non morti, "Ocula", vol.26, n.35, pp.13-28, September 2025. DOI: 10.57576/ocula2025-29

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