Companion volumes <i>Classic Readings on Monster Theory</i> and <i>Primary Sources on Monsters</i> gather a wide range of readings and sources to enable us to see and understand what monsters can show us about what it means to be human. The first volume introduces important modern theorists of the monstrous and aims to provide interpretive tools and strategies for students to use to grapple with the primary sources in the second volume, which brings together some of the most influential and indicative monster narratives from the West.
REVIEWS
"This monster of a two volume reader is exactly what we have long needed: a comprehensive and timely collection of the work that founded monster studies as well as the research that enabled it to become among the most exciting areas of interdisciplinary inquiry within the humanities. But there's more: a wide ranging collation of primary sources spans cultures and centuries. Capacious, inclusive, and brilliantly edited, this two volume set articulates the history of monster studies and promises its vigorous future." - Jeffrey J Cohen
TABLE OF CONTENTS
<div><b>Monster Theory</b></div><div>1. Introduction: "A Marvel of Monsters" by Asa Simon Mittman and Marcus Hensel</div><div>2. "Beowulf, the Monsters and the Critics" by J.R.R. Tolkien</div><div>3. "A Measure of Man," from <i>The Monstrous Races in Medieval Art and Thought</i> by John Block Friedman</div><div>4. "The Nature of Horror," from <i>The Philosophy of Horror</i> by Noël Carroll</div><div>5. "Rethinking the Canon: Prophets, Canons, and Promising Monsters" by Michael Camille</div><div>6. "Monster Culture (Seven Theses)," from Monster Theory: Reading Culture by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen</div><div><b>Allied Theories</b></div><div>7. "Introduction," from <i>Orientalism</i> by Edward Said</div><div>8. "Approaching Abjection," from <i>Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection</i> by Julia Kristeva</div><div>9. "Parasites and Perverts: An Introduction to Gothic Monstrosity," from <i>Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters</i> by J. Halberstam</div><div>10. "From Wonder to Error: A Genealogy of Freak Discourse in Modernity," from <i>Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body</i> by Rosemarie Garland Thomson</div>