Introduction, with Dr. Caroline Picart, SPEAKING OF MONSTERS: A TERATOLOGICAL ANTHOLOGY (original) (raw)
Related papers
This article attempts to delineate the history of the monstruos by recognizing inside it the manifestation of severance between the contingent and the trascendent world. The monster embodies the boundary of the everlasting paradox of human existence, in the balance between the desire of knowing and the impossibility of drawing completely on knowledge.
Monsters: interdisciplinary explorations in monstrosity
Palgrave Communications, 2020
There is a continued fascination with all things monster. This is partly due to the popular reception of Mary Shelley’s Monster, termed a ‘new species’ by its overreaching but admiringly determined maker Victor Frankenstein in the eponymous novel first published in 1818. The enduring impact of Shelley’s novel, which spans a plethora of subjects and genres in imagery and themes, raises questions of origin and identity, death, birth and family relationships, as well as the contradictory qualities of the monster. Monsters serve as metaphors for anxieties of aberration and innovation (Punter and Byron, 2004). Stephen Asma (2009) notes that monsters represent evil or moral transgression and each epoch, to speak with Michel Foucault (Abnormal: lectures at the Collège de France, 1975–75, 2003, p. 66), evidences a ‘particular type of monster’. Academic debates tend to explore how social and cultural threats come to be embodied in the figure of a monster and their actions literalise our deep...
Monsters: Classic to Contemporary Symbols
Culture, Society and Praxis, 2008
This paper reviews different literatures that use Monster's as methods to strike fear within the reader, and the characters in the story itself. Popular childhood monster stories are explored in terms of the monsters role in the story, and the monsters method of engaging fear into certain characters. The author poses personal questions for our readers; such as: what if you engaged in thoughts that could potentially deem you as a monster?
Movies, Monsters, Metaphors (Summer 2021)
In an effort to lend cohesiveness to the daily topics, readings, and screenings this semester, our course has been organized around the topic of “monstrosity.” No iconographic element is as central to the horror genre than the monster, a figure of radical alterity and spectatorial dread that has served several cultural purposes over the decades. Indeed, the allegorical and metaphorical meanings of the monster, which shift to reflect the different historical and sociopolitical contexts in which motion pictures are produced and consumed, are as varied as the many exterior forms or physical characteristics associated with cinematic terror (e.g., those of ghosts, masked killers, vampires, werewolves, zombies, etc.). We will delve into the monster’s polysemic ability to convey multiple ideas/meanings over the next four weeks.
From mythical monsters to future horrors: towards an understanding of the function of monstrosity:
This BA thesis investigates the function of the Monster from the 5th century onwards, with particular attention to whether, and how, this function has changed over time. To this purpose, three texts are analyzed: 'Beowulf', 'The Island of Doctor Morreau' and 'The Calcutta Chromosome', with a narrow focus on how the monsters in the chosen texts function and are described. Anthropological, philosophical, historical and literary approaches to the monster are outlined and to varying extents applied in the analysis of the individual texts. Subsequently, the texts are analyzed in chronological order, with particular emphasis on the function, description, and location of the monsters, with emphasis on the Monsters of 'The Calcutta Chromosome'. Subsequently, I undertake a comparative analysis of the monsters of 'Beowulf', 'The Island of Doctor Morreau' and 'The Calcutta Chromosome', this time focusing on the geographical location of the monsters, and its meaning. Finally, I attempt a theoretically founded analysis of how the monster functions in literature, with particular emphasis on its symbolic function. Here the theory that was explained in the opening chapter is drawn in, in an argument that the monster basically has different layers of functions. Furthermore, it is argued that the functions of the monster has various facets, symbolic and concrete, and that it refuses any clearcut definition. This is supported by McCormack's argument that the core feature of the monster is that it defies categorization. This is used to support the argument that the monster is fundamentally ambiguous. Throughout the thesis, it is argued that the monster is fundamentally a complex entity, and that any attempt to approach the monster from any one theoretical angle will be incapable of grasping this complexity. It is concluded that my thesis, that the monster has always resided beyond the border of what is known, but that this border has moved over time, is fundamentally correct. However, it is also concluded that this is but one aspect of the ambiguous nature of the monster. Furthermore, it is concluded that the monster is a fundamentally transgressive construct, and that the breaching of borders is one of the key functions of the monster. It is noted that general conclusions can only be drawn to a limited extent on the basis of the examined source material. Furthermore, it is emphasized that the purpose of this thesis is more to point to a general trend in the depiction of monstrosity across literary eras, than to make a definitive statement about the monster as a literary concept.
The Cult of the Monstrous: Caricature, Physiognomy, and Monsters in Early Modern Italy
Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural, 2012
Caricature emerged as a pictorial genre in early modern Italy and became a potent form of social satire practiced by the period’s foremost draftsmen, including the Carracci and Guercino. The deformed and misshapen subjects of caricature drawings coincided with a fascination with monstrosity. Monsters, aberrations, and anomalies reflected a cultural appreciation for the curious. The monster that slowly took shape in scientific literature was first alluded to in comparative physiognomic texts that related human to beast, then made brief appearances in the discourse on medical conditions, and finally became the primary focus of specialty publications. The attention given to physical aberrance led to the birth of teratology, the medical study of abnormal development, and the subsequent publication of several well-known monster histories by Fortunio Liceti and Ulisse Aldrovandi. This essay considers the rise of the monstrous by examining several trends in contemporary scientific discours...