Neither man, nor zombie

Subjectification in Jesper Wung-Sung’s novels on Zam

Abstract

The novels Zam (2015) and Zam bider igen (2021) utilizes a new kind of zombie that, unlike its predecessors, elaborates on questions of identity. This article explores the ways in which Jesper Wung-Sung’s novels portray subjectivity in accordance with late modernity. Michel Foucault’s technologies of power and technologies of the self are used to conceptualize the process of subjectification. In both novels zombies exists side by side with humans, but the situation is conflictual as the zombies are suppressed. The protagonist Zam wishes to be human and must manage two sets of norms, one for zombies and the other for humans. Other zombies in the novels appear as uncivilized and Zam dissociates himself from them in his endeavor to be human. Amongst the humans he nevertheless remains an anomaly and his desire for community is futile. The representation of Zam’s aspiration to create a meaningful “life” for himself elaborate on questions of subjectivity within late modernity. Zam frequently fails in his ambition, but in the end, he manages to create an existence beyond humanity and the zombies, a kind of tabula rasa. He thus embodies individual autonomy, an ideal in the late modern society, but it is a highly problematic existence.