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the Great American Monster = Moby-Dick! Harold K. Bush English Saint Louis University -------------------------------------- From: Adam Capitanio <capitani@msu.edu> Date: Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 4:42 PM Has no one yet suggest C'thulhu or the other "Old Ones" from HP Lovecraft's fiction? -Adam Capitanio -------------------------------------- From: Jeannette Jones <jjones11@unlnotes.unl.edu> Date: Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 2:32 PM Hi, Paula Dupree/Chila from the Captive Wild Woman film trilogy. I am revising on an article on Paula Dupree, female monsters, and evolutionary narratives. Jeannette Eileen Jones Department of History Institute for Ethnic Studies (African American and African Studies) Women's and Gender Studies University of Nebraska, Lincoln -------------------------------------- From: Rikk Mulligan <rikk@comcast.net> Date: Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 4:27 PM Is it just from American literature and film? Some examples, many of which have received media treatment, include the loup garou--Cajun werewolves, native skinwalkers, the Legend of Boggy Creek, and the legend of "Champ" in the Great Lakes. Are you considering some of the more frequent urban legends like "the hook" and others who would seem to be the precursors to Freddy Kruger and Jason Voorhees? The American flesh-consuming zombie (thank you Romero), and rampaging, angry ghosts (Shirley Jackson and Richard Matheson) also come to mind, as does Matheson's "scientification" of the vampire, as David Oakes considered. Ah! No longer uniquely American, but still worth considering are the cannibal families ranging from the original "The Hills Have Eyes" (with the nuclear mutation referent) to the more recent "Wrong Turn" and "Texas Chainsaw" varieties. Will you have an entire section for the various examples given in the old "Nightstalker" series or in the earlier "X-Files" episodes? And speaking of literature, or graphic novels, what about the various "mutants" from the X-Men style in Marvel to the mutated horrors for B-movies and 1980s "Death Zone" style post-apocalypse? Last, what about those entities taken from native myth, such as the Wendigo and Chupacabra, or is there a limitation on "American" as United States and "mainstream" culture? Do alien visitation and the whole Area 51 and "greys" roll into the broad "monster" umbrella or is the criteria more limiting? Good luck, Rikk Mulligan American Studies Michigan State University -------------------------------------- From: Ray J Sapirstein <rsapirstein@nyc.rr.com> Date: Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 5:17 PM Too fun. El Diablo y sus incarnaciones? La Llorona, Witches Heretics Aliens Technologies run amok uncooperative environmental conditions Headless horsemen Halfbreeds Stepmothers Woodchoppers (crypto-savages) miscellaneous savages/cannibals workers immigrants urbanites slaveholders abolitionists terrorists anarchists capitalists seditious enemy nationals slaves racialized Americans (with weapons) teenagers the mentally ill the handicapped loose women intemperate men Huns nuclear mutants violent criminals of all stripes Liminal, hybrid figures (Bosch-like too: man, animal, object) I'd say just about anyone who has been demonized...seemingly bent on the destruction of civil society. -------------------------------------- FROM: Catherine E. Saunders csaunde1@gmu.edu DATE: Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 4:36 PM Probably too obvious to mention, but there is, of course, Stephen Crane's "The Monster." Catherine E. Saunders, Ph.D. Dept. of English George Mason University -------------------------------------- FROM: Johannes Fehrle <johannes.fehrle@gmx.net> DATE: Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 12:59 AM Talking about Moby Dick, isn't Ahab really the monster? Anyway, here are some weird ones that you might not have thought about before: Patrick Bateman (American Psycho), the Emperor in Star Wars? The "Savage" of the Westerns / Dime Western? Or Native Americans in much earlier puritan texts about man eaters etc. Certainly the quintessential American monster. I think Slotkin argues in Gunfighter Nation that all monsters / enemies are really variation of the stereotyped Indian. Frankenstein wasn't written by an American but has become a very American text until it's publication. Hitler and the Nazis of course probably the number one monster/monsters apart from Native Americans maybe. Do you deal with computer games as well? This is by no means a specialty of mine, but they are usually full of monsters and end up in cinemas every once in a while (Doom etc.). The Terminator? There seems to be a turn in recent times where the vampire isn't necessarily a monster any more or at least not the bad, bad monster (Anne Rice and such). And here are some trashy movies with actual monsters: Buba Ho-Tep (mummy) Jeeper's Creepers (some gargoyle like creature) Serial Killers? (Hannibal Lecter etc.) What about abstract threats like killer viruses? Aliens? (from Orson Welles to Independence Day and beyond) Hope that helps, Johannes Fehrle Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg -------------------------------------- FROM: Weinstock, Jeffrey A <weins1ja@cmich.edu> DATE: Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 6:06 AM Thanks so far for the suggestions for American monsters. Here are a few clarifications: * For the purposes of the volume (The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary Monsters), we are considering "literature" to be a culture's written tradition. This may include both poetry and prose. * For the purposes of the volume, we are considering "monster" to refer to a gross exception to the norms of a given culture's ecosystem. A monstrous being for our purposes is someone or something very morally objectionable, physically or psychologically hideous, or a freak of nature. This definition accommodates both human and non-human creatures. The volume, for better or worse, will not be including: * historical personages unless they have been incorporated in some way into a literary tradition in a significant way. * Monsters generally associated with regional folklore but not firmly associated with any particular literary or cinematic text. I am currently working together with our team of subject area experts to constitute the table of contents. Once we've decided upon the inclusions, I'll then be soliciting for authors for the individual entries and will welcome volunteers. Sincerely, Jeffrey Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock English Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts Central Michigan University -------------------------------------- FROM: John Saillant <john.saillant@wmich.edu> DATE: Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 8:44 AM In Charles Johnson's _Middle Passage_ there is some sort of entity held captive in the hold. I haven't read the novel in years, but as I recall it's hinted to be a monster (in the biological sense) but also a deity (in the spiritual sense). It might fit in somewhere in the volume. John Saillant H-OIEAHC OIEAHC <www.wm.edu/oieahc> William and Mary Quarterly
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