We will examine the gradual process by which the application of the legal and political definition of death has expanded beyond its medical meaning. What does it mean to categorize a population or group as "already dead" even when the individuals of which it is composed exhibit the characteristics of living human beings? What qualifies them as already dead: an epidemic that has reached a certain demographic threshold, a famine or drought that has placed a certain percentage of the population beyond any possibility of recovery, even cultural characteristics that mark a group as no longer human? Further, what are the political, ethical and legal consequences of such declarations for the populations in question? What actions can or must be taken with regard to them? We will trace these questions as they are posed in works by Bram Stoker, Franz Kafka, Joseph Conrad, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Giorgio Agamben and in the films Night of the Living Dead (1968) and 28 Days Later (2002). Open only to first year frosh.