The Monster That Is History
The Monster That Is History

Author: Dewei Wang

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2004-10-04

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 0520238737

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In ancient China a monster called Taowu was known for both its vicious nature and its power to see the past and the future. Since the seventeenth century, fictive accounts of history have accommodated themselves to the monstrous nature of Taowu. Moving effortlessly across the entire twentieth-century literary landscape, David Der-wei Wang delineates the many meanings of Chinese violence and its literary manifestations.

The Monster in Theatre History
The Monster in Theatre History

Author: Michael Chemers

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-28

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 1315454076

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Monsters are fragmentary, uncertain, frightening creatures. What happens when they enter the realm of the theatre? The Monster in Theatre History explores the cultural genealogies of monsters as they appear in the recorded history of Western theatre. From the Ancient Greeks to the most cutting-edge new media, Michael Chemers focuses on a series of ‘key’ monsters, including Frankenstein’s creature, werewolves, ghosts, and vampires, to reconsider what monsters in performance might mean to those who witness them. This volume builds a clear methodology for engaging with theatrical monsters of all kinds, providing a much-needed guidebook to this fascinating hinterland.

Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind
Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind

Author: David Quammen

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2004-09-17

Total Pages: 532

ISBN-13: 039307630X

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"Rich detail and vivid anecdotes of adventure....A treasure trove of exotic fact and hard thinking." —New York Times Book Review For millennia, lions, tigers, and their man-eating kin have kept our dark, scary forests dark and scary, and their predatory majesty has been the stuff of folklore. But by the year 2150 big predators may only exist on the other side of glass barriers and chain-link fences. Their gradual disappearance is changing the very nature of our existence. We no longer occupy an intermediate position on the food chain; instead we survey it invulnerably from above—so far above that we are in danger of forgetting that we even belong to an ecosystem. Casting his expert eye over the rapidly diminishing areas of wilderness where predators still reign, the award-winning author of The Song of the Dodo and The Tangled Tree examines the fate of lions in India's Gir forest, of saltwater crocodiles in northern Australia, of brown bears in the mountains of Romania, and of Siberian tigers in the Russian Far East. In the poignant and troublesome ferocity of these embattled creatures, we recognize something primeval deep within us, something in danger of vanishing forever.

The Monster That Is History
The Monster That Is History

Author: David Der-Wei Wang

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2004-10-04

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 9780520937246

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In ancient China a monster called Taowu was known for both its vicious nature and its power to see the past and the future. Over the centuries Taowu underwent many incarnations until it became identifiable with history itself. Since the seventeenth century, fictive accounts of history have accommodated themselves to the monstrous nature of Taowu. Moving effortlessly across the entire twentieth-century literary landscape, David Der-wei Wang delineates the many meanings of Chinese violence and its literary manifestations. Taking into account the campaigns of violence and brutality that have rocked generations of Chinese—often in the name of enlightenment, rationality, and utopian plenitude—this book places its arguments along two related axes: history and representation, modernity and monstrosity. Wang considers modern Chinese history as a complex of geopolitical, ethnic, gendered, and personal articulations of bygone and ongoing events. His discussion ranges from the politics of decapitation to the poetics of suicide, and from the typology of hunger and starvation to the technology of crime and punishment.

History of Monster Movies
History of Monster Movies

Author: Timothy J. Bradley

Publisher: Teacher Created Materials

Published: 2016-08-01

Total Pages: 51

ISBN-13: 1480757004

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Dive into the history of monster movies! From the earliest examples from the silent-film era, to modern-day movies featuring sophisticated CGI, monster movies have been scaring audiences for years. Developed by Timothy Rasinski and Lori Oczkus, and featuring TIME content, this high-interest book builds reading skills and includes essential text features like an index, captions, glossary, and table of contents. The detailed sidebars, fascinating images, and Dig Deeper section prompt students to connect back to the text and encourage multiple readings. Check It Out! includes suggested resources for further reading. Aligned with state standards, this title features complex content appropriate for students preparing for college and career readiness.

The Monster Who Wasn't
The Monster Who Wasn't

Author: T.C. Shelley

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2020-09-15

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 1547605189

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It is a well-known fact that fairies are born from a baby's first laugh. What is not as well documented is how monsters come into being ... This is the story of a creature who is both strange and unique. When he hatches in the underground lair where monsters dwell, he looks just like a human boy – much to the monsters' dismay. Even the grumpy gargoyles who take him under their wings and nickname him "Imp" only adopt him to steal chocolate for them from nearby shops. With feet in both the monster and human worlds, Imp doesn't know where he fits. But little does Imp realize that Thunderguts, king of the ogres, has a great and dangerous destiny in mind for him, and he'll stop at nothing to see it come to pass. . . With rich, atmospheric writing, debut author T.C. Shelly weaves a story of unlikely friendship, family, strange magic, and finding one's place in the world.

The Origins of Monsters
The Origins of Monsters

Author: David Wengrow

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2013-11-24

Total Pages: 181

ISBN-13: 1400848865

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It has often been claimed that "monsters"--supernatural creatures with bodies composed from multiple species--play a significant part in the thought and imagery of all people from all times. The Origins of Monsters advances an alternative view. Composite figurations are intriguingly rare and isolated in the art of the prehistoric era. Instead it was with the rise of cities, elites, and cosmopolitan trade networks that "monsters" became widespread features of visual production in the ancient world. Showing how these fantastic images originated and how they were transmitted, David Wengrow identifies patterns in the records of human image-making and embarks on a search for connections between mind and culture. Wengrow asks: Can cognitive science explain the potency of such images? Does evolutionary psychology hold a key to understanding the transmission of symbols? How is our making and perception of images influenced by institutions and technologies? Wengrow considers the work of art in the first age of mechanical reproduction, which he locates in the Middle East, where urban life began. Comparing the development and spread of fantastic imagery across a range of prehistoric and ancient societies, including Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and China, he explores how the visual imagination has been shaped by a complex mixture of historical and universal factors. Examining the reasons behind the dissemination of monstrous imagery in ancient states and empires, The Origins of Monsters sheds light on the relationship between culture and cognition.

The Monster Show
The Monster Show

Author: David J. Skal

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published: 2001-10-15

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 9780571199969

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Illuminating the dark side of the American century, The Monster Show uncovers the surprising links between horror entertainment and the great social crises of our time, as well as horror's function as a pop analogue to surrealism and other artistic movements. With penetrating analyses and revealing anecdotes, David J. Skal chronicles one of our most popular and pervasive modes of cultural expression. He explores the disguised form in which Hollywood's classic horror movies played out the traumas of two world wars and the Depression; the nightmare visions of invasion and mind control catalyzed by the Cold War; the preoccupation with demon children that took hold as thalidomide, birth control, and abortion changed the reproductive landscape; the vogue in visceral, transformative special effects that paralleled the development of the plastic surgery industry; the link between the AIDS epidemic and the current fascination with vampires; and much more. Now with a new Afterword by the author that looks at horror's popular renaissance in the last decade, The Monster Show is a compulsively readable, thought-provoking inquiry into America's obsession with the macabre.

Monsters in America
Monsters in America

Author: W. Scott Poole

Publisher:

Published: 2018-07-15

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 9781481308823

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Monsters are here to stay.--Christopher James Blythe "Journal of Religion and Popular Culture"