Publisher:
I.B. Tauris, London, England
;
Bloomsbury Publishing, [London, England]
From the 'Monster of Ravenna' to the 'Elephant Man', Myra Hindley and Ted Bundy, the visualisation of 'real', human monsters has always played a part in how society sees itself. But what is the function of a monster? Why do we need to embody and...
more
From the 'Monster of Ravenna' to the 'Elephant Man', Myra Hindley and Ted Bundy, the visualisation of 'real', human monsters has always played a part in how society sees itself. But what is the function of a monster? Why do we need to embody and represent what is monstrous? This book investigates the appearance of the human monster in Western culture, both historically and in our contemporary society. It argues that images of real (rather than fictional) human monsters help us both to identify and to interrogate what constitutes normality; we construct what is acceptable in humanity by depicting what is not quite acceptable Illustrations; Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Monstrous strangers at the edge of the world -- 2. Blurring the boundaries of nature and culture -- 3. Bodies and the order of society -- 4. Monsters in proximity -- 5. A monstrous subject -- 6. Monstrous images of evil -- 7. Modern monsters and the image of normality -- Afterword.
Publisher:
I.B. Tauris, London, England
;
Bloomsbury Publishing, [London, England]
From the 'Monster of Ravenna' to the 'Elephant Man', Myra Hindley and Ted Bundy, the visualisation of 'real', human monsters has always played a part in how society sees itself. But what is the function of a monster? Why do we need to embody and...
more
From the 'Monster of Ravenna' to the 'Elephant Man', Myra Hindley and Ted Bundy, the visualisation of 'real', human monsters has always played a part in how society sees itself. But what is the function of a monster? Why do we need to embody and represent what is monstrous? This book investigates the appearance of the human monster in Western culture, both historically and in our contemporary society. It argues that images of real (rather than fictional) human monsters help us both to identify and to interrogate what constitutes normality; we construct what is acceptable in humanity by depicting what is not quite acceptable Illustrations; Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Monstrous strangers at the edge of the world -- 2. Blurring the boundaries of nature and culture -- 3. Bodies and the order of society -- 4. Monsters in proximity -- 5. A monstrous subject -- 6. Monstrous images of evil -- 7. Modern monsters and the image of normality -- Afterword.
