Metaphor of the Monster

Keith Moser is Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Mississippi State University, USA. He is the author of five full-length book projects, the latest of which is entitled The Encyclopedic Philosophy of Michel Serres: Writing the Modern World and Anticipating the Future (2016).Karina Zelaya is Assistant Professor of Spanish (Latin American Cultural Studies) at Mississippi State University, USA.

As they draw our gaze toward them, monsters, as Nietzsche observed, also force us to look within. This wide-ranging volume engages literary studies across numerous disciplines to explore urgent questions about encounters with monstrosity, rendered in narrative form, that challenge us to account for who we are and what we fear we might become.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionKeith Moser (Mississippi State University, USA)Part I Ecological Perspectives 1. A Portrait of Fictional Characters as Darwinian MonstersDominique Lestel (Stanford University, USA), translated by Keith Moser2. Tokyo Ghoul and the Trouble with CannibalismTony Milligan (King’s College London, UK)3. Monster and Victim: Melusine from the Fourteenth Century to the Age of Homo DetritusJonathan Krell (University of Georgia, USA)4. J. M. G. Le Clézio’s Defense of the Human and Other-than-human Victims of the Derridean "Monstrosity of the Unrecognizable" in the Mauritian Saga AlmaKeith Moser (Mississippi State University, USA)5. Strange Fish: Caliban's Sea-changes and the Problems of ClassificationJames Seth (Central Washington University, USA)6. Monster of Vacancy, Ghost of Culture, Instrument of Clarity: Cultural and Textual Analysis of the Function of the Sonoran Desert as Monster in Luis Alberto Urrea’s The Devil’s HighwayMindy Adams (Texas State University, USA)Part II Transgressive, Monstrous Gender and Corporality 7. Transgressive and Sovereign Authority in the Valois CourtTouba Ghadessi (Wheaton College, USA)8. "Maybe Something I Never Wanted Will Be Born": Etgar Keret’s Monstrous Dream of MotherhoodElisa Carandina (Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, France)Part III Teaching Monstrosity in the (Post-)Modern World9. Reading Monsters: How Mary Shelley Teaches Incels to Read Paradise LostNeil Barrett (The Webb School, USA)10. "We Live in a Time of Monsters": Teaching Composition through the Representations of Monsters and Monstrosity in LiteratureDevon Pizzino (Borough of Manhattan Community College / St. Francis College, USA)Part IV Monstrosity in World Literature 11. Vamping It Up: Identity Performance and Intoxicated Bloodlust in the Poetry of Eduardo Haro IbarsAlyssa Holan (University of Wisconsin, Platteville, USA)12. The Edges of the World in Classical Greece and Epic India: A Comparison of the Monstrous Races of Ctesias's Indica and the Raksasas of Valmiki’s RamayanaAlbert Watanabe (Louisiana State University, USA)13. Satire and Monstrosity in African Diasporic DramaSubbah Mir (Louisiana State University, USA)14. How a Monster Became a Hero: An Understanding of Camusian Morality through the Absurdist Hero, Don JuanScott Truesdale (University of Georgia, USA)Index