Hello, my name is Bowen Wright, and today I am excited to be sharing with you my

research findings from my academic writing class in this presentation titled, “The ‘Other’ Side of

the Story; Racism, the Colonial Gaze, and Science Fiction Monsters.”

Recent scholarship has linked science fiction zombie stories to broader metaphors

about neo-colonialism and zombies themselves being interpreted as a racial minority. Gerry

Canavan argues that one of the most influential zombie narratives of today, ​The Walking Dead​,

quote, allegorizes the racial forms of exclusion and extermination that already surround us,

unquote.
Kyle Bishop explains this is no new phenomenon, since the first Hollywood zombie film, ​White

Zombie​, the zombie has been a metaphor for subjugated minorities. The context of the origin of

the “zombi” itself further supports the argument that recent zombie stories are neo-imperialistic

with implicit racism at their core.

“Zombis,” originally undead slaves in Haitian slave folklore, emphasized slaves’ fear

of becoming not only owned and forced to work for another, but also being mindless. These

articles I read show a striking connection between one of the most popular science fiction

antagonists, the zombie, and Western settler colonial structures.

However, they do not touch on how imperialism has contributed to any other Western
cultural legends, and subsequently influence Western views of racial minorities. To address this

gap in knowledge, I ask if the legacies of colonialism have shaped another Western science

fiction antagonist…

… Frankenstein’s Creature, originally created by Mary Shelley in 1817, but adapted

many ways since then.

Through Mary Shelley’s original book ​Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus, ​as

well as articles exploring the context of the novel, I explore the impact of physical appearance,

and the colonial gaze, and the “other” side of the story in ​Frankenstein ​and ​The Walking Dead​ to

show how racism is perpetuated over time through popular Western “monsters.”
 Both the physical appearances of the Creature in ​Frankenstein,​ and the zombies in ​The

Walking Dead​ emphasizes their otherness, and are derived from stereotypes about slaves, and

colonial subjects. The Creature in ​Frankenstein​ is defined by his body which was, quote, more

agile [and] could subsist upon coarser diet… and bore the extremes of heat and cold with less

injury to [his] frame; [furthermore, his] stature far exceeded [the European’s], unquote.

H.L. Malchow argues that this racialized description of the Creature fits with, quote,

the standard description of the black man in both the literature of the West Indies and that of

West African exploration, unquote, which Shelley had access to. Jill Lepore in the New Yorker

supports the idea of the Creature as a metaphor for an African character, rather than a European

one, quote, given [that] Mary Shelley’s reading of books that stressed the physical

distinctiveness of Africans, her depiction of the Creature is explicitly racial, unquote.

The Creature himself in ​Frankenstein​ notes that, quote, when [he] looked around [he]

saw and heard none like [him], unquote. The Creature in ​Frankenstein​ is therefore justifiably a

metaphor for slaves in Shelley’s pre-emancipation world. Shelley herself was an abolitionist, and

therefore we can see the Creature as a metaphor for the harmful consequences of slavery.
 The Creature’s physical appearance becomes more clearly racialized in a negative way

throughout the adaptations of the book that further integrate it into mainstream Western culture.

Lepore notes that in the first adaptation of the book into a play, the person playing the Creature

has his face painted blue. This literal colouring of the Creature shows the movement towards the

more explicit viewing of the Creature as a racial other, as opposed the implicit reference in the

compilation of dead parts of the original novel.

In Western society today, Frankenstein’s Creature, who is now commonly, and

mistakenly, referred to as “Frankenstein,” is associated with the colour green, the opposite of

what Shelley originally presented him as. Frankenstein’s Creature began as highlighting the

unjust inequalities faced by racially subjugated peoples because of their appearance in Shelley’s

original novel, however this message got lost in the modernization of Shelley’s classic tale.

Where Frankenstein’s Creature can be seen as a metaphor for African slaves, Canavan

sees zombies as being connotated with Indigenous Americans, who are also racially

discriminated against. He contextualizes this theory through arguing that ​The Walking Dead​ is a

“bizarre postmodern pastiche of the history of U.S. imperialism.” Kirkman shows the zombies in
The Walking Dead​ as overwhelmingly large masses, who cannot be controlled by Western forces

of authority, as illustrated on page 45, where Rick, the spitting image of white patriarchal

hegemony in his police uniform on horseback, is attacked by zombies in the city of Atlanta.

The illustrations in ​The Walking Dead​ show these imperial-esque subjects as

antagonistic by exemplifying the zombies’ otherness in extremely detailed drawings of distorted

physical features. “Otherness” in ​The Walking Dead​, like in ​Frankenstein,​ is made evident by

differences in physical features, which seems to justify the Western protagonists using the quote,

tools and technologies of empire, unquote, to dominate the zombies, as imperial Americans

colonized the Indigenous peoples.

 Following the changes in physical appearance that Frankenstein’s Creature has

undergone in Western modernization of the classic tale is the changes in mental and verbal

capacity. In Mary Shelley’s original ​Frankenstein​, the reader is taken through an embedded

narrative, first hearing the point of view of a sailor who listens to Dr. Frankenstein’s story,

within which is the story of the Creature he created, told in the Creature’s own words.

The transition from Shelley victimizing the Creature by showing the reader his side of

the story, to the modern adaptations of Frankenstein’s Creature as illiterate and usually

communicating only through incomprehensible noises perpetuates racism because the Creature

was made to represent a racial minority, and now this Creature’s “otherness” is being

exemplified through false stereotypes.

It is clear in the middle of ​Frankenstein, ​when the Creature explains his side of the

story, that Shelley aims for the reader to empathize with the Creature, and antagonize Dr.

Frankenstein, his creator. From Dr. Frankenstein’s point of view, the Creature is an evil monster,

killing all of his family members, but when, in the middle of the book we are able to hear the
Creature’s point of view, the reader is more prone to empathize with the Creature, after hearing

of his hardships due to nothing other than the fact that he looks different from the other

Europeans he encounters.

The loss of communication from the Creature in modern ​Frankenstein a​ daptations

results in the loss of empathy from the consumer of the story. By not allowing the Creature’s

voice to be heard in modern adaptations of the story racism in Western societies continues as it is

assumed that people who look different do not have a point of view, or cannot communicate

effectively, falsely emphasizing their “otherness.”

On the other hand, ​The Walking Dead​ is an example of a modern adaption of a story

of racial minorities which have no way of communicating their points of views through the

dominant Western narrative. In fact, it is assumed that the zombies don’t have a point of view, as

their otherness from being “dead” is so extremely different from the survivors. Unlike Shelley’s

novel, there is no way for the reader to empathize with the others in this narrative as they are

never given the chance to tell their side of the story. This seems to justify the violent actions of
the mainly white protagonists in ​The Walking Dead​ and further perpetuates racism in Western

culture.

By not giving the zombies a chance to explain their point of view in ​The Walking

Dead​ it is assumed that those who look different do not have a point of view. This way of seeing

the world, albeit through the platform of a popular science fiction graphic novel, can shape

people’s racist actions towards those who look different by de-validating the “other” point of

view.

The fact that the Creature is nominally mistaken today as his creator, Dr. Frankenstein,

could be seen as a metaphor for how Shelley’s victimization of the Creature in her original novel

has been so misconstrued over time that Western society now sees the Creature as the antagonist,

not the racist European forces which created him.

Both Frankenstein’s Creature and “Zombis” were created to bring awareness of the

dangers of racism, however, over time Western science fiction culture has transformed them

back into unnamed creatures associated with hell, defined by their physical features, and limited

in their means of communication.

 As Frankenstein’s Creature and “Zombis” are so well ingrained into Western science

fiction culture, Western society must take a step back and examine the historical roots of the

creatures they assume are monsters. By continuing with narratives like ​The Walking Dead​ that

unquestioningly champion the white cowboy, racism continues to be ingrained in Western

popular culture. Racism also continues in Western culture through not recognizing the original

purpose of Frankenstein’s Creature, to draw attention to the unjust inequalities (and subsequent

ramifications) faced by people who are racially discriminated against. This should matter to all

of Western society as a society in which we strive for equality and justice.

I have found that what originally were creatures made to help people understand the
hardships of racialized minorities, have become exploited by the hegemonically dominant culture

into popular forms of entertainment that do not give proper recognition to the origins of the

creatures. In doing this, the cycle of racism continues in Western societies through antagonists in

Western science fiction embodying racially subjugated peoples. Thank you for listening.

Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I was unable to delve into my research

regarding the association of science fiction antagonists with Hell, and the importance of neither

Frankenstein nor zombies having names, however if anyone is interested in these, I would be

happy to talk about them afterwards, or answer questions regarding them.