"The Monstrous Imagination"

Harvard FAS

This seminar is a study of monsters and “deviants” in Western culture from Biblical times to the present day. Students will endeavor to answer, collectively and individually, some basic questions: How does the idea of the monster both shun and affirm difference? How is the monster a product of systems of belief and cultural values? In what ways do monsters represent sexuality, politics, religion, and power? An array of exotic and marginal figures will form the focus of our study, including…