Monsters. Real or imagined, literal or metaphorical, they have exerted a dread fascination on the human mind for centuries. We cannot help looking under the bed and in the closet, equally compelled and repelled by what we most fear to find lurking there. -- Dust jacket.
Record details
ISBN:9780195336160 (hardcover)
Physical Description:xii, 351 p. : ill ; 25 cm. print
Publisher:Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2009.
Content descriptions
Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references (p. [285]-333) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:
Extraordinary beings -- Alexander fights monsters in India -- Monsters are nature's playthings -- Hermaphrodites and man-headed oxen -- Monstrous desire -- Biblical monsters -- Do monsters have souls? -- The monster killer -- Possessing demons and witches -- Natural history, freaks, and nondescripts -- The medicalization of monsters -- Darwin's mutants -- The art of human vulnerability: angst and horror -- Criminal monsters: psychopathology, aggression, and the malignant heart -- Torturers, terrorists, and zombies: the products of monstrous societies -- Future monsters: robots, mutants, and posthuman cyborgs.
Summary: Monsters. Real or imagined, literal or metaphorical, they have exerted a dread fascination on the human mind for centuries. We cannot help looking under the bed and in the closet, equally compelled and repelled by what we most fear to find lurking there. -- Dust jacket.
Book
