Mi vagyunk a vírus?
Are we the virus?

Contagion as an ecopolitical metaphor in pandemic films, monster films and cultural imagination

Summary/Abstract: In March 2020, after the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, a series of memes appeared on the internet announcing that “Nature is recovering. We are the disease. Coronavirus is the vaccine.” The study shows that this ecological slogan is more than 25 years old, and the idea itself is even older, influencing the message of several virus films, where the association between the virus and mankind is taking various forms in accordance with the changing concepts regarding the origin of the ecological problems of the Earth and the perceived solutions to them. While in virus films the microscopic pathogens are often seen as the representatives of the immune system of the Earth defending the ecological organism of the planet from the virus-like human invaders, in monster films virality becomes an integral aspect of the representation of the monster, which at first sight helps to legitimize an aggressive war against Nature that creates these viral monsters. At second sight, however, monster film may simulate possible solutions to the problems associated both with the ecological and viral crises without being didactic. Recent zombie movies in particular may be seen as “vaccinating” the viewer against the individualism and competitive behaviour often claimed as roots of both the climate catastrophe and the increasingly frequent virus outbreaks.

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