English Review: Journal of English Education
Vol. 13 No. 2 (2025)

KING'S THE STAND: DWELLING NECROPOLITICS IN PANDEMIC'S LEGACY

Poetri, Maharanny (Unknown)
Salam, Aprinus (Unknown)



Article Info

Publish Date
11 Jul 2025

Abstract

This research examines Stephen King's The Stand through the lens of Achille Mbembe's necropolitics and the pandemic narrative approach, analyzing how the novel portrays a pandemic as a state of siege. The research reveals that the pandemic in The Stand serves not only as a source of fear and societal disruption, highlighting human mortality and the fragility of social structures, but also as a catalyst for necropolitical governance, where sovereignty operates through the control of life and death, utilizing fear to maintain dominance. Utilizing a qualitative methodology focused on character interactions, control mechanisms, and depictions of death, the research demonstrates how the post-pandemic landscape in the novel reflects a slow social and political death, alongside physical demise. Additionally, this work implicates King's negotiation of humanity as an aspiration for peace, effectively neutralizing the pervasive fear of necropolitical implementation during a pandemic, as perceived at the time of the novel's release.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

ERJEE

Publisher

Subject

Arts Humanities Education Languange, Linguistic, Communication & Media

Description

ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education (ISSN print 2301-7554) is a peer-reviewed journal published in Indonesia by the Department of English Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, the University of Kuningan (PBI FKIP UNIKU) in collaboration with the Association of Indonesian ...