Classic Readings on Monster Theory

Asa Simon Mittman is Professor and Chair of Art & Art History at California State University, Chico. Marcus Hensel is Assistant Professor of English at Bethany College, Kansas.

Classic Readings on Monster Theory provides an overall vision of the monster as aptly defined by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen: a dweller at the gates of difference, the monster is a dialectical cultural, political, racial, economic, and sexual Other which strikingly originates Within. This volume ably demonstrates that monsters are worthy of thoughtful scholarly consideration in light of a consistently positive interpretation, and provides the tools to afford the uninitiated a more guided incursion into monster land.

• Monster Theory1. Introduction: "A Marvel of Monsters" by Asa Simon Mittman and Marcus Hensel2. "Beowulf, the Monsters and the Critics" by J.R.R. Tolkien3. "A Measure of Man," from The Monstrous Races in Medieval Art and Thought by John Block Friedman4. "The Nature of Horror," from The Philosophy of Horror by Noël Carroll5. "Rethinking the Canon: Prophets, Canons, and Promising Monsters" by Michael Camille6. "Monster Culture (Seven Theses)," from Monster Theory: Reading Culture by Jeffrey Jerome CohenAllied Theories7. "Introduction," from Orientalism by Edward Said8. "Approaching Abjection," from Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection by Julia Kristeva9. "Parasites and Perverts: An Introduction to Gothic Monstrosity," from Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters by J. Halberstam10. "From Wonder to Error: A Genealogy of Freak Discourse in Modernity," from Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body by Rosemarie Garland Thomson