Kultura zombie-tekstualna (o „Quirk Books” na przykładzie Dumy i uprzedzenia i zombi)

The author of the paper describes the phenomenon of reusing the works of classical literature by popular culture, which resembles the activities of zombies: the infection with the “pop culture virus” leaves the literary work superficially unchanged, however it radically changes its structure, meaning and its position in communication process. The material analysed in the paper consists of the works published in the American “Quirk Classics” series, in which the canonical literary texts (in their original textual form) are supplemented with the fragments of texts, which add the fantastic elements characteristic to the pop culture. Thus they create “new versions” of old texts: Pride and Prejudice and Zombie, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, Android Karenina (the first example is discussed in the paper). The author explains the-quasi educational role of the series and the metaphor of the text zombification used in the title of the paper. A detailed analysis is carried out regarding some key elements of the novel (space, characters, class relations). Particularly interesting changes can be observed in the plot types and in the ideological sphere of the novels (eg. the position of women in Jane Austin’s novels). The analyses allow the author to arrive at conclusions regarding the functioning of pop culture and its relation to the literary tradition: a conservative position (unconditioned acceptance of classical works and the inferiority of the reader in his/her confrontation with these works) is combined with the unifying approach, which adapts everything to the standards of pop culture.