Walking Corpses & Conscious Plants: Possibilist Ecologies in ...

Bingham 2
Abstract
In “Walking Corpses & Conscious Plants: Possibilist Ecologies in the Graphic
Novel,” I examine how graphic narratives have historically been used to express political
concerns; I then rate the impact of two contemporary works which imagine planetary
crisis in relation to this context. Working with Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead and
Alan Moore's Saga of the Swamp Thing, I aim to illustrate that the violent worlds depicted
in each fiction attest relevant social critique. As a frame for this analysis, I turn to the
work of philosopher David Kellogg Lewis. Using his model of modal realism, I argue
that engaging ideas of alternate realities through graphic narratives can be beneficial to
stimulating questions of political discourse among readers which might not arise otherwise.
Beginning with a consideration for early examples of sequential art and their social
functions, the first of my three chapters builds a foundation for understanding how
the modern comics form came into being. Next, I focus my attention upon the significance
of the portrayal of violence in my two primary texts. Both works imagine spaces of
total war but portray this experience through vastly different perspectives. Mainly, my
analysis of Kirkman's work concerns how the presentation of the human body is linked to
suicide bombers and the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. Here I apply the work
of philosopher Adriana Cavarero, author of Horrorism: Naming Contemporary Violence,
citing Kirkman's post-apocalyptic universe as a symptomatic expression of cultural concerns
regarding ceaseless conflict and erasure of identity. Conversely, my interest in
Moore's Saga of the Swamp Thing is motivated by his fusion of awareness into the environment.
Moore's monumental revival of a marginally successful superhero demonstrates
that certain themes, like natural preservation and dependency, may become more pertinent
to discuss with the passing of time.