Abstract
The essay argues that the politics of Colson Whitehead's zombie novel Zone One (2011) can only be adequately understood through an understanding of its debts to its generic forebears. Suggesting that Zone One offers a utopian solution to what it recognizes as contemporary political and social problems, the essay argues for a dialectical reading of its genre influences as simultaneously permitting recognition of its generic forebears as well as requiring a new appreciation of 'genre' texts. It suggests that the contemporary trend towards generically amalgamated fictions should be read as a search for alternative forms of expressing literary politics beyond the social novel.
Keywords
fantasy, genre, politics, Whitehead, Zombies, Zone One
How to Cite
Lanzendörfer, T., (2014) “The Politics of Genre Fiction: Colson Whitehead's Zone One”, C21 Literature: Journal of 21st-Century Writings 3(1), 39–52.