Monsters: A Bedford Spotlight Reader

by Andrew J. Hoffman

Overview

Brief. Inexpensive. Compelling. The Bedford Spotlight Reader Series brings critical topics to life in a portable, cost-effective reader. In this volume, you'll explore these questions: Why do we create monsters-and why are we attracted to them? How do monsters adapt to reflect the values, beliefs, and culture of the times? Is the monster within us? Readings by a range of classic poets, contemporary fiction writers, pop-culture critics, philosophers, psychologists, occultists, ethicists, historians, and others take up these questions and more. The book helps you form your own questions and responses as you investigate and write about this popular and intellectually rich topic. Visit macmillanhighered.com/spotlight. Writer's Help 2.0 Did your instructor assign Writer's Help 2.0? To ensure that you have easy access to writing advice online, your instructor may have assigned your book together with Writer's Help 2.0, a writing resource that works like a search engine. If your book was not packaged with an access card, you can purchase access online at macmillanhighered.com/writershelp2.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781457690303
Publisher:	Bedford/St. Martin's
Publication date:	10/23/2015
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Andrew J. Hoffman is a Professor of English at San Diego Mesa College, where he teaches courses in grammar, composition, and British Literature. He received his B.A. in English from the University of California at Irvine and his M.A. from Syracuse University. He is the author of Monsters, part of the Bedford Spotlight series, and has contributed to The Arlington Reader, Fourth Edition. In addition, he has authored, edited, or otherwise contributed to numerous other textbooks of grammar, composition, and rhetoric, in both traditional and online formats. 

Table of Contents

About the Bedford Spotlight Reader Series v

Preface for Instructors vi

Get the Most Out of Your Course with Monsters x

Contents by Discipline xix

Contents by Theme xxii

Introduction for Students 1

Chapter 1 Why Do We Create Monsters? 13

Why We Crave Horror Movies Stephen King 16

From Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus Mary Shelley 20

Conception Susan Tyler Hitchcock 23

Why Vampires Never Die Guillermo del Toro Chuck Hogan 36

My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead Chuck Klosterman 40

Monsters and Messiahs Mike Davis 46

Japan's Nuclear Nightmare: How the Bomb Became a Beast Called Godzilla Peter H. Brothers 51

Monsters and the Moral Imagination Stephen T. Asma 61

Chapter 2 Is the Monster Animal or Human? 69

The Origins of Half-Human, Half-Animal Creatures Jorge Luis Borges 72

Apollodorus, The Birth of the Minotaur 80

Ovid, The Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs 83

The Monstrous and the Bestial: Animals in Greek Myths Kenneth H. Simonsen 89

Composite Monsters: Island of Lost Souls and The Fly Bruce F. Kawin 99

Konstantinos, Birthright 105

Werewolves in Psyche and Cinema: Man-Beast Transformation and Paradox Elizabeth A. Lawrence 108

Chapter 3 How Do Monsters Reflect Their Times? 127

Here Be Monsters Ted Genoways 130

The Birth of Monsters Daniel Cohen 134

An Ancient Crypto-Bestiary David D. Gilmore 140

Anonymous, from Beowulf 151

Alexander Fights Monsters in India Stephen T. Asma 156

Cursed by a Bite Matt Kaplan 164

Monstrous Beginnings W. Scott Poole 176

Chapter 4 What Is the Attraction of Monsters? 187

Fear of the Monster Is Really a Kind of Desire Jeffrey Jerome Cohen 190

From Dracula Bram Stoker 196

Sexuality and the Vampire J. Gordon Melton 202

(Un)safe Sex: Romancing the Vampire Karen Backstein 211

Life among the Undead: An Interview with Neil Jordan Declan McGrath 221

Mermaids' Attributes, Behavior, and Environs Skye Alexander 232

Homer, from The Odyssey 239

The Monster as Woman: Two Generations of Cat People Karen Hollinger 243

Chapter 5 Is the Monster within Us? 257

Nation and Race Adolf Hitler 260

Why Modern Monsters Have Become Alien to Us Patrick McCormick 266

Unmasking the Monster: Hiding and Revealing Male Sexuality in John Carpenter's Halloween Jason Huddleston 275

Inside a Murdering Mind Anne E. Schwartz 289

The Horror in the Mirror: Average Joe and the Mechanical Monster Richard Tithecott 300

Ethical Aliens: The Challenge of Extreme Perpetrators to Humanism William Andrew Myers 308

Index of Authors and Titles 323