Monster Theory

Name: Monster Theory
Brand: NewSouth Books
SKU: 9780816628551
Price: 57.99 NZD
Availability: InStock

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Summary

Monster Theory explores the concept of monstrosity in Western civilisation, tracing its evolution from the days of Beowulf through to modern cultural phenomena like Jurassic Park. This fascinating collection of essays investigates how monsters serve as metaphors for the cultural anxieties and fears of their time, revealing much about the societies that create them.

The contributors consider a wide range of monstrous figures—including beasts, demons, freaks, and fiends—as symbolic expressions of cultural unease that shape collective behaviour. By studying these diverse monsters, the book offers insight into humanity's ongoing fascination with difference and prohibition.
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Format: Paperback / softback

$57⁹⁹

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Monster Theory

$57⁹⁹

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This thought-provoking volume is ideal for readers interested in cultural studies, literary criticism, and the arts, particularly those keen to understand how monsters reflect societal values and tensions.

Monsters provide a key to understanding the culture that spawned them. So argues the essays in this wide-ranging collection that asks the question, what happens when critical theorists take the study of monsters seriously as a means of examining our culture?

Description

Explores concepts of monstrosity in Western civilisation from Beowulf to Jurassic Park.

We live in a time of monsters. Monsters provide a key to understanding the culture that spawned them. So argue the essays in this wide-ranging and fascinating collection that asks the question: What happens when critical theorists take the study of monsters seriously as a means of examining our culture?

In viewing the monstrous body as a metaphor for the cultural body, the contributors to Monster Theory consider beasts, demons, freaks, and fiends as symbolic expressions of cultural unease that pervade a society and shape its collective behaviour. Through a historical sampling of monsters, these essays argue that our fascination for the monstrous testifies to our continued desire to explore difference and prohibition.

Contributors: Mary Baine Campbell, Brandeis U; David L. Clark, McMaster U; Frank Grady, U of Missouri, St. Louis; David A. Hedrich Hirsch, U of Illinois; Lawrence D. Kritzman, Dartmouth College; Kathleen Perry Long, Cornell U; Stephen Pender; Allison Pingree, Harvard U; Anne Lake Prescott, Barnard College; John O'Neill, York U; William Sayers, George Washington U; Michael Uebel, U of Virginia; Ruth Waterhouse.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780816628551

Publisher: University of Minnesota Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 15 November 1996

Country: United States

Imprint: University of Minnesota Press

Contributors:

Edited by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen

Audience: Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 23.0mm

Width: 149.0mm

Height: 229.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 336

Collections

Arts & Culture Education & Reference Non-Fiction

About the Author

Jeffrey Jerome Cohen is assistant professor of English and associate director of the Program in Human Sciences at George Washington University.