Ficciones inmunitarias. Sobre la lógica de la inmunidad en la cultura contemporánea

Abstract

This article develops the concept of "immunitarian fiction" taking as paradigmatic examples epidemics and zombie narratives, which share the idea of contagion as the main matrix of their narrative. The article tries to address the following question: in what way do these fictions, and other similar ones, participate in the imaginary of immunity and, at the same time, show some of their internal contradictions? For this, the text reflects on a set of cultural products of mass diffusion (novels, television series, cinematographic works). We analyze, in the first place, how these fictions highlight the fears and social anxieties linked to the tensions of the "immune paradigm" and represent the complex relationships between the community, its threats and the possible forms of immunization. In a second moment, the text describes how they generate an impacting narrative experience that seeks to produce a derivative fear in its audience that reinforces and consolidates the social logic of immunity and legitimizes its multiple forms of violence facing threats.