The Last of Us (2023;Home Box Office;Season One): A Road Trip Through the Leviathan,Neoliberalism,Fundamentalist Authoritarianism,and Small Socialism

Abstract

Home Box Office's The Last of Us (Season One, 2023) vibrates with symptomatic meanings that transpose contemporaneous sociopolitical anxieties. The horror/monster-genre series constructs contrasting models of “the art of governance” in a febrile moment in the United States when formerly presumed as settled questions about governmentality have been challenged. The analysis argues that the series enacts transposition from the human penchant for flawed governmentality to the monstrosity of the fungal infection, a move that can be interpreted as the locus of symptomatic meaning in the series. During their transcontinental journey in which the infected are often spectral, Joel and Ellie encounter communities that assume different forms of governmentality: Hobbesian Leviathan (and corruption of it), neoliberal gated community, and fundamentalist/authoritarian, each of which fails to meet human needs. By contrast, the “small socialism” of the compound in Jackson, Wyoming briefly presents governmentality that enables subjects to flourish. While the series is broadly progressive and favorable toward equality, it conveys chimerical accents around gender and LGBTQ.

Keywords

governmentality Leviathan neoliberalism small socialism

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Altemeyer

(2006). The Authoritarians. https://www.evcforum.net/DataDropsite/TheAuthoritarians.pdf

Benkler

(2020). A political economy of the origins of asymmetric propaganda in American media. In Lance Bennet

Livingston

(Eds.), The disinformation age (pp. 43–66). Cambridge University Press.

Bordwell

(1989). Making meaning. Harvard University Press.

Chekar

C. K.

Noon

J. R.

Hopkins

(2021). The secret to South Korea’s Covid success? The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/the-secret-to-south-koreas-covid-success-combining-high-technology-with-the-human-touch-170045

Clover

C. J.

(1987). Her body, himself. Representations, 20, 187–228. https://doi.org/10.2307/2928507 .

Crouch

(2011). The strange non-death of neoliberalism. Polity Press.

Drier

Kazin

(2020). How socialists changed America. In Aronoff

Drier

Kazin

(Eds.), We own the future (pp. 15–45). New Press.

Duménil

Levy

(2011). The crisis of neoliberalism. Harvard University Press.

Eagleton

(2017). Hope without optimism. Yale University Press.

10.

Fields

A. B.

(2003). Rethinking human rights for the New Millennium. Palgrave Macmillan.

11.

Foucault

(2023). Governmentality. Universitetet i Oslo. https://www.hf.uio.no/ikos/english/research/news-and-events/events/phd/2023/foucault-governmentality.pdf

12.

Friedman

(1980). Free to choose. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

13.

Fukuyama

(1992). The end of history and the last man. Penguin.

14.

Harris

(2016). Still looking. Film Comment, November-December. https://www.filmcomment.com/article/still-looking-lgbt-representation-in-american-cinema/

15.

Harvey

(2005). A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford University Press.

16.

Hobbes

(1651). Leviathan. Printed for Andrew Crooke, at the Green Dragon in St. Paul’s Churchyard. https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/hobbes/Leviathan.pdf

17.

Hodgson

G. M.

(2019). Is socialism feasible? Edgar Elgar Publishing.

18.

Home Box Office. (2023). Inside the Episode #1. The Complete First Season: The Last of Us (Region 2 DVD).

19.

Internet Movie Database. (2024). The Last of Us. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3581920/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_lk

20.

Jones

(2006). Antonio Gramsci. Routledge.

21.

Lawn

Prentice

(2015). Introduction: Neoliberal culture/the cultures of neoliberalism. Sites: A Journal of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies, 12(1), 1. pp. 1–28. https://doi.org/10.11157/sites-vol12iss1id312

22.

T. M.

(2007). Governmentality. University of Toronto TSpace. https://utoronto.scholaris.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/236a56df-f876-40fd-8a5c-6bf1beb52d71/content

23.

McCarthy

(1990). Post-modern economic policy and the press. Policy, Organisation and Society, 1(1), 72–78.

24.

Miller

(2019). Communes in America, 1975–2000. Syracuse University Press.

25.

Monaghan

(2021). Post-gay television. Media Culture & Society, 43(3), 428–443. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443720957553

26.

Mudde Cas. (2019). The far right today. Polity.

27.

Nicholson

(2023). The Last of Us Review–One of the finest TV shows you will see this year. The Guardian, 16 January. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/jan/16/the-last-of-us-review-one-of-the-finest-tv-shows-you-will-see-this-year

28.

Pew Research Center. (2024). Public trust in government, 1958–2024. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/06/24/public-trust-in-government-1958-2024/

29.

Robin

(2011). The reactionary mind. Oxford University Press.

30.

The Royal Society. (2025). The basics of climate change. https://royalsociety.org/news-resources/projects/climate-change-evidence-causes/basics-of-climate-change/

31.

Ryan

Kellner

(1988). Camera politica. Indiana University Press.

32.

Schlegel

N. G.

(2015). Sex, sadism, Spain and cinema. Rowman and Littlefield.

33.

Shams

Bhargava

Hanbury

H. W.

(2024). The cultural contradictions of neoliberalism. Roosevelt Institute. https://rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/the-cultural-contradictions-of-neoliberalism/

34.

Townshend

(1971). Won’t get fooled again. Who’s next. Track Records.

35.

Turner

(2009). Film as social practice (4th ed.). Routledge.

36.

Wacker

(2000). The rise of fundamentalism. National Humanities Center. https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/twenty/tkeyinfo/fundam.htm

37.

Wood

(2002). The American nightmare. In Jancovich

(Ed.), Horror: The film reader (pp. 25–32). Routledge.