Hipnotic genealogy of the myth of the zombie:" White zombie" (1932)

Abstract

This is the second of a series of articles that aims to study the history and psychological significance of the “myth of the zombie” based on a myth’s conceptualization extracted from the notions of Jung’s analytical psychology and Eliade’s his tory of religions. Here, starting from the hypothesis that the background of the zombie is found in the “dark side of magnetism and hypnosis” literature and filmography, we will try to show how the central mythologem and the characteristic motifs of this genealogy are assumed and developed in White Zombie, the first zombie movie in history. Through this analysis we will examine the allegorical elements of the first cinematographic works of zombie myth, whose nuclear topics are science and totalitarianism, and we will try to unveil the psychological sense of its fundamental symbolic components.