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May 12, 2024
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2012-2013 HillBook (Class of 2016) [ARCHIVED HILL BOOK]
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ENG 129 - Monstrous RepresentationsThree Credits
Fall Semester
The topic of this course is, simply put, monsters. These figures have occupied the imagination for centuries. Even today, they continue to haunt our cultural consciousness in literature and film. Horrifying, strange, sometimes even seductive, monsters inhabit the space of difference, calling into question cultural values (such as those of gender, race, sexuality, etc.) and exposing the anxieties, fears, and desires of the cultures that generate them. But what does it mean to be a monster? What separates monsters from men? What happens when these boundaries are crossed? Why do monsters always return? In what ways do they change with each new return? How do they stay the same? In this course, we will examine these and other questions as we encounter monstrous representations from a variety of literary periods and genres. Through studying figures as diverse as the Blemmyae of medieval travel narratives, the creations of Dr. Moreau, and Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula, we will investigate what these monsters can tell us about the cultures that create and consume them.
Fulfills the Cornerstone Literature Requirement.
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