Humanity has become increasingly aware of the Anthropocene and the impact of a worldview based on prioritizing human progress above all else. We’ve always used stories to navigate and negotiate the world in which we live. We have also continually developed new and different ways of telling those stories. I argue that the multiverse created by The Walking Dead is a platform upon which to assay a humanity post-anthropocentrism; the utopian energies (possibilities for improvement, positive potential) wrought from this study provide potentially powerful and actual physical material effects (actions that are cataloged and verifiable) in consumers of The Walking Dead. The multiverse (myriad adaptations that create a transmedia franchise) promotes a practice of accepting a more complex, more uncertain worldview, even before we begin to delve into the moral and ethical questions posed by the content of each iteration or adaptation. If the major premise of our worldview involves the centrality of humans and human progress, then the multiverse first upends this notion in order to dismantle infrastructure, political systems, civilization, and other things that reinforce human centrality. The method of that deconstruction is meaningful as well because, due to the overwhelming pervasiveness of humans, the structures of anthropocentrism are quickly dismantled by humans turning to “walkers.” Our own prevalence comes back to bite us sometimes literally.
","abstract_html":"<p>Humanity has become increasingly aware of the Anthropocene and the impact of a worldview based on prioritizing human progress above all else. We’ve always used stories to navigate and negotiate the world in which we live. We have also continually developed new and different ways of telling those stories. I argue that the multiverse created by The Walking Dead is a platform upon which to assay a humanity post-anthropocentrism; the utopian energies (possibilities for improvement, positive potential) wrought from this study provide potentially powerful and actual physical material effects (actions that are cataloged and verifiable) in consumers of The Walking Dead. The multiverse (myriad adaptations that create a transmedia franchise) promotes a practice of accepting a more complex, more uncertain worldview, even before we begin to delve into the moral and ethical questions posed by the content of each iteration or adaptation. If the major premise of our worldview involves the centrality of humans and human progress, then the multiverse first upends this notion in order to dismantle infrastructure, political systems, civilization, and other things that reinforce human centrality. The method of that deconstruction is meaningful as well because, due to the overwhelming pervasiveness of humans, the structures of anthropocentrism are quickly dismantled by humans turning to “walkers.” Our own prevalence comes back to bite us sometimes literally.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Smith, Shavawn"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts in English (MA)","degree_level":"UAF Access Only - Thesis","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Dempsey, Sean A.","Lopez Szwydky-Davis, Lissette"],"advisors":["Booker, M. Keith"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2017,"date_issued":"2017-12-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2017-12-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T00:59:40Z","subjects":["Literature in English, North America"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/2594","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Dempsey, Sean A.","Lopez Szwydky-Davis, Lissette"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Booker, M. Keith"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Smith, Shavawn"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2017"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2018-01-04T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["UAF Access Only - Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts in English (MA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Literature in English, North America"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/2594"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Humanity has become increasingly aware of the Anthropocene and the impact of a worldview based on prioritizing human progress above all else. We’ve always used stories to navigate and negotiate the world in which we live. We have also continually developed new and different ways of telling those stories. I argue that the multiverse created by The Walking Dead is a platform upon which to assay a humanity post-anthropocentrism; the utopian energies (possibilities for improvement, positive potential) wrought from this study provide potentially powerful and actual physical material effects (actions that are cataloged and verifiable) in consumers of The Walking Dead. The multiverse (myriad adaptations that create a transmedia franchise) promotes a practice of accepting a more complex, more uncertain worldview, even before we begin to delve into the moral and ethical questions posed by the content of each iteration or adaptation. If the major premise of our worldview involves the centrality of humans and human progress, then the multiverse first upends this notion in order to dismantle infrastructure, political systems, civilization, and other things that reinforce human centrality. The method of that deconstruction is meaningful as well because, due to the overwhelming pervasiveness of humans, the structures of anthropocentrism are quickly dismantled by humans turning to “walkers.” Our own prevalence comes back to bite us sometimes literally.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["We Can Come Back From This: Navigating the Perils of the Anthropocene in The Walking Dead"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Dempsey, Sean A.","Lopez Szwydky-Davis, Lissette"],"dc:contributor.advisor":["Booker, M. Keith"],"dc:creator":["Smith, Shavawn"],"dc:date":["2017"],"dc:date.available":["2018-01-04T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Humanity has become increasingly aware of the Anthropocene and the impact of a worldview based on prioritizing human progress above all else. We’ve always used stories to navigate and negotiate the world in which we live. We have also continually developed new and different ways of telling those stories. I argue that the multiverse created by The Walking Dead is a platform upon which to assay a humanity post-anthropocentrism; the utopian energies (possibilities for improvement, positive potential) wrought from this study provide potentially powerful and actual physical material effects (actions that are cataloged and verifiable) in consumers of The Walking Dead. The multiverse (myriad adaptations that create a transmedia franchise) promotes a practice of accepting a more complex, more uncertain worldview, even before we begin to delve into the moral and ethical questions posed by the content of each iteration or adaptation. If the major premise of our worldview involves the centrality of humans and human progress, then the multiverse first upends this notion in order to dismantle infrastructure, political systems, civilization, and other things that reinforce human centrality. The method of that deconstruction is meaningful as well because, due to the overwhelming pervasiveness of humans, the structures of anthropocentrism are quickly dismantled by humans turning to “walkers.” Our own prevalence comes back to bite us sometimes literally.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/2594"],"dc:subject":["Literature in English, North America"],"dc:title":["We Can Come Back From This: Navigating the Perils of the Anthropocene in The Walking Dead"],"thesis:degree_level":["UAF Access Only - Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts in English (MA)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T00:59:40Z"}