Global Racial Capitalism and the Asian American Zombie in Ling Ma's Severance

This essay argues that Asian American racialization has historically been attendant on the needs of capital. By examining the dystopic zombie novel Severance alongside a long history of Asian exclusion and racialized fears of contagion, this essay considers the convergence of Orientalism and capitalism at the site of the "fevered" zombie body. The essay ends by considering moments of narrative impasse or divergence from capitalist spacetimes to imagine an Asian American humanity that is not constrained by race and labor categories.