When the Zombies Came for Our Children: Exploring Posthumanism in Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead

Abstract

Through the theoretical lens of cultural posthumanism, this essay offers a reading of writer Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comics series (2003 ongoing). By referring to specific passages of Kirkman’s script, this essay explores The Walking Dead’s psychologization of childhood as its narrative moves away from a satirical construction of the zombie apocalypse into the inquiry of contemporary (in)humanity.

Keywords

• zombies
• The Walking Dead
• humanism
• posthumanism
• childhood