Anxieties and apprehensions: Asian and European perspectives

“East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet” is the infamous line by Rudyard Kipling that has underpinned relations between the two geopolitical and ideational spheres of Asia and Europe. Though the two spheres came into existence through processes of mutual influence and interaction, centuries of conquest and colonisation have locked them into a dynamic of apprehension and anxiety about each other. You will explore the roots of these anxieties and how they are expressed through popular cultural forms, like crime, disease, dystopian, ecological, environmental, horror and zombie narratives.

These popular culture texts can perpetuate or transcend entrenched oppositional perspectives through commonalities of genre and stylistic techniques while also producing innovations. In engaging with these narratives, you will be encouraged to examine your own planetary worldview.