Domestication in the Theater of the Monstrous: Reexamining Monster Theory (original) (raw)

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.

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...

“I don’t even feel human anymore”: Monstrosity and Othering in Ken Dahl’s Monsters

Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities

The idea of the monster has functioned within various Western discourses, always carrying with it elements of difference, deviance, exclusion, and marginality irrespective of spatiotemporal differences. The monstrous often signified a liminal state of existence, remaining well within the western dualistic logic that operates through a series of binaries such as natural/unnatural, human/animal, self/other, normal/deviant. Within the discourses surrounding body and illness, sexual transgression and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) such as AIDS, syphilis, and herpes, among others, are often portrayed as monstrous. Ken Dahl's autopathography Monsters (2009) is a harrowing account of his experience of dealing with herpes infection and the personal, psychological and socio-cultural impact of encountering his own vulnerabilities as an STD-infected person. In close reading Dahl's memoir, this article aims to investigate the author's use of the monster metaphor and abject art to depict the stigma he faced as a carrier of an incurable and contagious disease. Drawing theoretical insights from Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, and Julia Kristeva among others, the essay also seeks to examine the social mechanisms and the discourses surrounding body and illness which operate in stigmatizing and othering an STD patient as monstrous.

Monsters and the Monstrous: Ancient Expressions of Cultural Anxieties

A Cultural History of Fairy Tales in Antiquity, 2021

Many of the most recognizable monsters in Western culture, such as Medusa, Cerberus, and the Cyclopes, started to appear in literature and art nearly three thousand years ago. Other, more generic types of monstrous or uncanny entities, such as dragons and ghosts, are even older and appear in art and literature across the globe. This chapter covers such creatures in the earliest folk and fairy tales of the ancient Near East and Mediterranean areas, keeping in mind that much of our information comes from tales, or, in most cases, prototypes for tales, embedded within the larger context of Near Eastern and Greek myths. The chapter first considers what the concept of "monster" might have meant for people in those geographical regions thousands of years ago. The chapter then examines what tales from antiquity survive that incorporated monsters, what kinds of monster predominate in these tales, and what the presence and roles of monsters in the tales might have meant.

The Evil States of Mind: Perceptions of Monstrosity

EVIL States of Mind: Perceptions of Monstrosity, 2019

There can be little doubt that monsters and other evil entities have found a permanent place in people's conceptual systems. This is hardly surprising as there have been many monstrous types which during various stages of societal and cultural development, people have encountered. One of the possible reasons why monsters survive so persistently in culture and language is that in fact they are within (internal) and thus eternal. What people perceive as monstrous and the way they visualise monstrosity may vary. However, the basic components will come from a predictable repertoire of loathsome and grotesquely distorted features. Gilmore (2003: 190) states that "[t]he organic components constituting the monster are symbolic manifestations of emotions displaced, or projected in visual form". This could be explained by the fact that more and more frequently, various vile creatures seem to emerge as grisly and disturbing news-stories of monstrous people engaging in inhuman acts of particular cruelty. Seeing monsters for what they are, Gilmore (2003: 191) asserts that "there is always a non-fixed boundary between men and monsters. In the end, there can be no clear division between us and them, between civilisation and bestiality". Cultural models of fear-inducing objects or events owe as much to instinct as to folk wisdom and classical mythology-Greek mythology in particular. Various narratives which frame particular emotions, such as fear, carry a strong telic element (Kövecses, 2006: 89). This is partly why the modern narratives utilise the language of myth or folk stories to formulate particular world-views, ethical values and emotional responses. It is a common occurrence for people today to be prisoners of their fear, particularly because many, if not most, horrors are manmade. This multidisciplinary paper aims at demonstrating how modern monsters and demons emerge from fear induced narratives.