Guillaume Vétu – a1695762 26/10/2020

Beyond the Tree of the Living-dead:

A Rhizoanalysis of Japanese Cinematic Zombies

PhD Thesis Summary

This thesis builds upon Donna Alvermann’s original ‘rhizoanalysis’ and generates a deeper
understanding of Japanese cinematic zombies. Over the last century, zombies have
progressively become the most pervasive fictional monsters of all time. This has given rise to a
multidisciplinary body of scholarship known as ‘zombie studies’, which explores the global
expansion, evolution and enduring significance of these monsters from a variety of angles.
Recently, some of the pillars of zombie studies have become matter for debate. The
increasingly intangible, fluid nature of zombies can no longer be contained by some of the
earlier – yet enduring – conventions of zombie studies, which are based on rigid categorisations
and the pursuit of a strict zombie definition. For instance, the widely disseminated
understanding of zombies as soulless beasts born from a chronological Afro-Caribbean-
American lineage is difficult to reconcile with those featured in Japanese cinema. This thesis
argues that this particular impasse is the manifestation of the rhizomatic nature of zombies and
as such presents a valuable opportunity for methodological experimentation.
By extending Alvermann’s rhizomatic approach, I develop a new method of textual analysis
that adheres closely to the principles of the ‘rhizome’, a complex philosophical concept
developed by French thinkers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari as a counterpoint to what they
consider the hegemony of classical – or ‘root-tree’ – thinking. Rhizoanalysis is a wholesome
approach that incorporates both conventional knowledge (the ‘tree’) and new rhizomatic
expansions (the ‘map’). These are developed separately before being superimposed
(‘reconnecting the tree’) to uncover new knowledge. I carefully systemise Alvermann’s
rhizoanalysis to become usable on a wider range of texts. This includes a new initial stage,
called ‘map weighing’, where a strategy is formulated before rhizoanalysis is fully engaged, and
a new specific terminology to assist with the expansive ‘map making’ stage of rhizoanalysis,
summarised through a guiding tool called ‘the inverted pyramid of rhizoanalysis’.
This thesis verifies over 160 Japanese feature length films featuring zombies produced
between 1959 and 2018 and authenticates Japan’s zombie film output as the second largest in
the world, after the US and above the UK. This vast, understudied corpus offers an ideal testing
ground for this new rhizoanalysis, allowing for both conventional and rhizomatic approaches to
be exercised first-hand. Supported by personal interviews with Japanese film, media and
folklore scholars and professionals, this thesis affords new significance to some of the specific
attributes of Japanese cinematic zombies, such as their unparalleled heterogeneity and their
particular relation to corporeality and animism. This thorough, mixed-method – albeit non-
rhizomatic – investigation serves several purposes. First, it further exposes the fragility of the
postulates of zombie studies in question and the rhizomatic nature of these monsters. It also
broadens conventional understandings of Japanese cinematic zombies, an important condition
for a successful rhizoanalysis. Throughout this examination, the founding principles of
rhizoanalysis are reiterated and clarified by example and counterexample. This all serves as
groundwork for the final part of the thesis, where the new method is tested and its potential to
uncover new, otherwise unattainable, knowledge is demonstrated with clear examples,
ushering others to experiment in their own field of interest.

Thesis Structure
Chapter I: Introduction
Chapter II: Literature Review
Part 1 – Rhizome
Part 2 – Zombies
Part 3 – Japanese Zombies
Chapter III: Methodology
Part 1 – Rhizoanalysis
Part 2 – Non-rhizomatic Methods
Chapter IV: Japanese Cinematic Zombies and the ‘Zombie Tree’
Part 1 – The Roots of Japanese Cinematic Zombies
Part 2 – The Branch(es) of Japanese Cinematic Zombies
Chapter V: Japanese Cinematic Zombies: a Rhizoanalysis
Part 1 – Map Weighing
Part 2 – Map Making
Part 3 – Reconnecting the Tree
Chapter VI: Conclusion