Zombies, nuclear wastelands, hungry vampires,
alien invaders, biblical plagues, raging illnesses concocted in labs, the
desolation of protracted war, werewolves, or even unknown catastrophes that
leave society irreparably destroyed; post-apocalyptic fiction has recently
benefited from an explosion of interest. There are numerous novels, stories,
and forms of digital media devoted to exploring a world where, in almost all
cases, there is a significant depopulation of the earth. Against this backdrop
of desolation and death, valiant survivors do their best to survive in a
wasteland filled with harrowing dangers of both the human and non-human kind
alike. The fascination with these types of stories is at an all time high, and
the allure is understandable. In an attempt to explain the preoccupation and
advent of the recent wave of post-apocalyptic fiction, one can argue that it is
tied – from a sociological perspective - to French sociologist Emile Durkheim’s
theories on Structural Functionalism.
As mentioned earlier, the types and reasons
for the fall of society in these novels are manifold. From the wildly popular dystopian
world of Panem in Suzanne Collins' Hunger
Games trilogy, to the Pulitzer Prize winning bleakness of Cormac McCarty’s The Road; from the shambling, always
hungry zombies of Robert Kirkman’s Walking
Dead graphic novels, to the snarling, vicious vampires of Guillermo Del
Toro’s The Strain trilogy; we are
fascinated by the end of the world. But how can we examine this fascination
from a sociological perspective? There are three distinct ways in which we can
better understand the appeal of a total breakdown of modern society.
The first is a longing for escape from our
everyday, humdrum existence. In this case, the longing for a post-apocalyptic
future is a reflection of Durkheim’s theories posited in The Division of Labor in Society. Organic Solidarity, as Durkheim
explains, is a hallmark of a modern, complex, technological society, and leads
to specialization of labor. As a society
grows too specialized, the specialization becomes “a source of disintegration
(Applerouth, Edles, 94). This
dissatisfaction leads, in Durkheim’s view, to anomie. It is the idea of anomie that is at the heart
of the longing for escape. Anomie describes a lack of social norms or
self-regulation. It leads to a breakdown of social bonds between an individual
and their community. It results in a
fragmentation of social identity and the rejection of self-regulatory values.
As Durkheim explained, while explaining the consequences of economic disasters
in Suicide, A Study in Sociology, “…[Those
affected by the disaster] are not adjusted to the condition forced on them, and
its very prospect is intolerable; hence the suffering which detaches them from
a reduced existence even before they’ve made a trial of it (Appelrouth, Edles 109).”
In other worlds, the fans of post-apocalyptic
fiction are responding to the loss of individuality and personal self worth as
a result of modernized society. As Paul Cantor explained, those members of
society to whom an apocalypse most appeals to:
“…display an ambivalent attitude toward
modernity in general, perhaps a general disillusionment with it, a sense that
all technological progress upon which we pride ourselves has not made us
happier and may, on the contrary, have made us miserable by depersonalizing our
relationships and limiting our freedom “
A breakdown
of society relieves people of their responsibilities and the things that should
make our lives easier, causing distance between us.
Another sociological perspective
that may help explain the proliferation of, and interest in, apocalyptic novels
can be found in Durkheim’s idea of normative behavior, and the self-regulation of
social order upon individuals. In The
Rules of Sociological Method, Durkheim explores this when he talks about
criminality. He argues that it is a critical and essential function of society
to perform crimes; that criminal behavior is, in fact, normal and only bound by
the larger moral judgment and regulation of society. He writes, “…crime is
normal because a society exempt from it is utterly impossible (Appelrouth,
Edles 91).
It is in this idea of normal behavior, and
the morality of crime, that we find the allure of the apocalypse. The novels we’ve
mentioned imagine a world where one is free from the normative expectations of
their neighbors because they are dead, irradiated, or eaten by zombies. With
the lack of the societal inhibitors on behavior – less the morality of societal
expectations and community standards – one can find true freedom. In a post-apocalyptic
landscape, the only law or moral is survival, and the constraints of society
are secondary to this. The fiction of this genre appeals to a longing for
lawlessness within us. We can kill, steal, and do things we might otherwise not
do in a more regulated society. As Todd K. Platts observed, apocalyptic motifs,
“serve as conduits of and for exploration of societal ideals, values, ideas,
and ideological contradictions (551).”
Finally, the apocalypse envisioned
in, for instance, Max Brook’s novel, World
War Z: An Oral History of The Zombie War, is a reflection of our fears in a
post 9/11 world. The novel details the fall, and eventual resurrection of
society after a zombie apocalypse. Durkheim’s pivotal work, Suicide, addressed the significant
social changes that bring about a lack of moral regulation. Again, as Apelrouth explains, a lack of moral regulation in times of intense social and
personal change leads to individuals feeling unanchored. Furthermore, “In this case, the pursuit of individual desires and goals can overtake
moral concerns (101).”
The attacks of 9/11 heightened this sense of
low moral regulation and caused fear. Literature is a reflection of the mood of
society, and in this case, the fear takes the shape of a bad economy, fears of
terrorism, and the further breakdown of society – as Durkheim posited. As Aupers wrote, “Emile Durkheim in turn,
lamented the increased power of a distant nation-state that undermined social
cohesion and motivated feelings of anomie (28).” An apocalypse represents an
opportunity to imagine a world where we are in charge of our own fates, and not
subject to the whims and fear of larger, global threats.
At their heart, the novels discussed
here, and others of the same genre, are about the degradation of social
structure and fall squarely into the structural functionalism of Emile
Durkheim. The fascination with a modern world that loses its structure and
collapses as a result of anomie and normlessness, as Durkheim defined them, are
a fantasy rooted largely in response to a post 9/11 era. The allure of
post-apocalyptic or dystopian literature is primarily about the fragmentation
of social identity and the rejection of self-regulatory values. But, besides
that, they appeal to the survivor in all of us, and are glimpses into a world
where social theory entertainingly comingles with zombies, vampires,
cannibalism, and nuclear winter.
Sources
Cited
Appelrouth, Scott A., and Edles, Laura Desfor.
Classic and Contemporary Sociological Theory. Los Angeles: Sage Pine
Forge, 2012. Print.
Auspers, Stef. “Trust No One: Modernization,
Paranoia, and Conspiracy Culture.” European
Journal of Communication. 27.1 (2012). 22-34. Print.
Cantor, Paul A. “The Apocalyptic Strain in
Popular Culture: The American Nightmare Becomes the American Dream.” The Hedgehog Review. 15.2 (2013). Web.
Platts, Todd K. "Locating Zombies in the Sociological
Popular Culture." Sociology Compass. 7.10 (2013): 547-560. Print.
