Below are some questions to ask about any zombie narrative as way to begin finding where a text fits within the genre.

Questions about the Context and Medium

1. When was the text produced/distributed?
2. Where was the text produced/distributed?
3. In what medium did the text originally appear?

Questions about the Text

Diegetic

Questions about what happens within the story's reality, about the narrative content of the text.

Outbreak

1. What is the scope of the zombie outbreak?
2. Where does the outbreak begin?
3. Where/how do survivors find shelter/protection?

Origins and Transmission

1. How does the text explain the origin of zombies?
2. How is the condition spread?
3. When and where is the setting of the text?

Behavior and Attributes of the Zombies

1. How fast do the zombies move?
2. What kind of mental abilities do zombies have?

Behavior and Attributes of the Humans

1. How do the humans behave toward one another?
2. How do the humans behave toward the zombies?

Extra-diegetic

Questions about how the story is presented, the narrative discourse or form of the text.

Narrative

1. From what point of view is the story told?
2. How is the narrative resolved?

Interpretive

Questions about how we make meaning out of the narrative.

Characters

1. Which characters are we meant to approve of, and how do they behave?
2. Which characters are we meant to disapprove of, and how do they behave?

Themes

1. What are the economic implications of the text?
2. What are the political implications of the text?
3. What are the racial implications of the text?
4. What are the gender implications of the text?

Questions about the Genre

1. What earlier genre texts does this text borrow from?
2. What later genre texts does this text influence?
3. What new elements does this text introduce into the genre?
4. In what ways does this text reinvigorate old genre elements?