What are monsters? Imagined at the margins of reality and patrolling the borders of what is acceptable and conceivable, monsters are a way in which different cultures delimit what is deemed to be normal and organize aesthetic, emotional, and ethical reactions. Monsters have a lot to teach us about the cultures that engendered them. The seminar will cover a wide array of primary texts from the East Asian and Western canons from antiquity to the present, all populated by excessive creatures, abnormal human beings, and aberrant behaviors. Screenings and discussions of classical and popular horror films complement the course.
