Quick Write

Come up with a list of monster you might be interested in researching. What movie monsters come to mind? What local or regional monsters are there? What are some less heard of monsters you may know?

Monster Culture (Seven Theses)cover

Monster List

Monsters are all around us. In the movies we watch, the books we write, and in every aspect of life. Monsters are fear inducing. But monsters are also cuddly like Sully, Cookie Monster, and The Count on Sesame Street.

In small groups, come up with a monster list of monsters to help our understanding. Do they fit into categories? What commonalities and differences can you see?

The theses are tools for us to use to analyze monster, in the cultural studies sense. The monsters the cultures produce say a lot about that culture. We create monsters that evolve over time, sometimes purposely for whatever reason.

Monster Culture (Seven Theses)

Our purpose for today is to understand the seven theses on Monsters and Monstrosity and to develop a good resources that will help us to remember and use the theses in our writing.

Jeffrey Jerome Cohen – Monster Culture (Seven Theses) (p. 3-20)

Monster Theory

  1. Thesis I. The Monster’s Body Is a Cultural Body (4)
  2. Thesis II. The Monster Always Escapes (4)
  3. Thesis III. The Monster Is the Harbinger of Category Crisis (6)
  4. Thesis IV. The Monster Dwells at the Gates of Difference (7)
  5. Thesis V. The Monster Polices the Borders of the Possible (12)
  6. Thesis VI. Fear of the Monster Is Really a Kind of Desire (16)
  7. Thesis VII. The Monster Stands at the Threshold . . . of Becoming (20)

In groups, develop a list of the important points, lessons, takeaways, and examples that we need to understand in order to understand the thesis. Write a short summary explaining the points of the thesis. Make sure you label which thesis you are writing about. This is very important because we will be using monster theory to write the last two essays in the course. The better we understand the theory, the better we will be able to apply it.

Thesis I. The Monster’s Body Is a Cultural Body

  • Each culture will produce their own monsters and their own versions of monsters. “The monstrous body is pure culture” (4).
  • The monsters is born as an embodiment of a certain cultural moment, a time, a feeling, and a place. A monster will always change because culture changes, our fears and beliefs are always changing (4).
  • The monster signifies something other than itself: it is a displacement, it inhabits the gap between when it was created and it is received, to be born again (4).