Of Men and Monsters: Jeffrey Dahmer and the Construction of the Serial Killer
by Richard Tithecott
University of Wisconsin Press, 1998 Cloth: 978-0-299-15680-0 | eISBN: 978-0-299-15683-1 | Paper: 978-0-299-15684-8 Library of Congress Classification HV6515.T57 1997 Dewey Decimal Classification 364.1523092
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Of Men and Monsters examines the serial killer as an American cultural icon, one that both attracts and repels. Richard Tithecott suggests that the stories we tell and the images we conjure of serial killers—real and fictional—reveal as much about mainstream culture and its values, desires, and anxieties as they do about the killers themselves.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Richard Tithecott is an administrative director at the University of Southern California. He is coeditor of the Signet Classic edition of My Secret Life: An Erotic Diary of Victorian London.
REVIEWS
"In this post-modern reading, Jeffrey Dahmer is not a page in the history of true crime but a Monster who serves many rhetorical and cultural functions."—Philip Jenkins, Penn State University, author of Using Murder: The Social Construction of Serial Homicide
"Brilliantly compelling. Tithecott challenges us to investigate our simultaneous distancing from and fascination with serial murder."—Maria Tatar, Harvard University, author of Lustmord: Sexual Murder in Weimar Germany
"Tithecott takes aim at the unsettling disparity of attention between murderer and murdered."—Chris Bull, Washington Post
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Foreword
Kincaid,
James R.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I.
Policing the Serial Killer
1.
Defining the Monster: Serial Killing and the FBI
2.
Investigating the Serial Killer: The Seeking of Origins
The Serial Killer and the Idea of the Individual
“Are You Raising a Jeffrey Dahmer?”
3.
Investigating the Serial Killer: Silencing the Unspeakable
4.
Jeffrey Dahmer: Gay, White Cannibal
Part II.
Dreaming the Serial Killer
5.
The Horror in the Mirror: Average Joe and the Mechanical Monster
6.
Confessing the Unspeakable
7.
Supercops and Superkillers
8.
The Monstrous Self: Dreaming Up Reality
9.
Sanity, Satan, and Sanitized Evil
10.
Fantasies of Power
The Serial Killer and the Powers of Intelligence
The Serial Killer as Warrior Knight
A Man's Man: Jeffrey Dahmer and the Dream of Masculinity
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
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Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
Of Men and Monsters: Jeffrey Dahmer and the Construction of the Serial Killer
by Richard Tithecott
University of Wisconsin Press, 1998 Cloth: 978-0-299-15680-0 eISBN: 978-0-299-15683-1 Paper: 978-0-299-15684-8
Of Men and Monsters examines the serial killer as an American cultural icon, one that both attracts and repels. Richard Tithecott suggests that the stories we tell and the images we conjure of serial killers—real and fictional—reveal as much about mainstream culture and its values, desires, and anxieties as they do about the killers themselves.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Richard Tithecott is an administrative director at the University of Southern California. He is coeditor of the Signet Classic edition of My Secret Life: An Erotic Diary of Victorian London.
REVIEWS
"In this post-modern reading, Jeffrey Dahmer is not a page in the history of true crime but a Monster who serves many rhetorical and cultural functions."—Philip Jenkins, Penn State University, author of Using Murder: The Social Construction of Serial Homicide
"Brilliantly compelling. Tithecott challenges us to investigate our simultaneous distancing from and fascination with serial murder."—Maria Tatar, Harvard University, author of Lustmord: Sexual Murder in Weimar Germany
"Tithecott takes aim at the unsettling disparity of attention between murderer and murdered."—Chris Bull, Washington Post
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Foreword
Kincaid,
James R.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I.
Policing the Serial Killer
1.
Defining the Monster: Serial Killing and the FBI
2.
Investigating the Serial Killer: The Seeking of Origins
The Serial Killer and the Idea of the Individual
“Are You Raising a Jeffrey Dahmer?”
3.
Investigating the Serial Killer: Silencing the Unspeakable
4.
Jeffrey Dahmer: Gay, White Cannibal
Part II.
Dreaming the Serial Killer
5.
The Horror in the Mirror: Average Joe and the Mechanical Monster
6.
Confessing the Unspeakable
7.
Supercops and Superkillers
8.
The Monstrous Self: Dreaming Up Reality
9.
Sanity, Satan, and Sanitized Evil
10.
Fantasies of Power
The Serial Killer and the Powers of Intelligence
The Serial Killer as Warrior Knight
A Man's Man: Jeffrey Dahmer and the Dream of Masculinity
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE