Monsters: A Bedford Spotlight Reader

Description

Monsters explores questions about the central concept of the monstrous: Why do we create monsters? Are they animal, human, both, or neither? Which of our fears and desires do monsters embody? What can monsters tell us about our cultural and historical moments? How do we cope with the monsters that haunt our imaginations—and our societies? Readings by classic poets, contemporary fiction writers, pop culture critics, philosophers, psychologists, occultists, veterinarians, ethicists, historians, and others take up these questions and more. Questions and assignments for each selection provide a range of activities for students to write about vampires, werewolves, zombies, mermaids, serial killers, classic horror movie monsters, and more strange things that go bump in the night. The Bedford Spotlight Reader Series is an exciting line of single-theme readers, each reflecting Bedford’s trademark care and quality. An editorial board of a dozen compositionists at schools with courses focusing on specific themes assists in the development of the series. Each reader collects thoughtfully chosen selections sufficient for an entire writing course—about 35 pieces—to allow instructors to provide carefully developed, high-quality instruction at an affordable price. Bedford Spotlight Readers are designed to help students from all majors make sustained inquiries from multiple perspectives, opening up topics such as borders, food, gender, happiness, humor, language, music, science and technology, subcultures, and sustainability, to critical analysis. The readers are flexibly arranged in thematic chapters, with each chapter focusing in depth on a different facet of the central topic. Instructor support at macmillanlearning.com includes sample syllabi and additional teaching resources. About this Book Cover Page Inside Front Cover Halftitle Page Title Page Copyright Page About the Bedford Spotlight Reader Series Preface for Instructors Bedford/St. Martin’s Puts You First Contents Contents by Discipline Contents by Theme Introduction for Students Chapter 1 Why Do We Create Monsters? Why We Crave Horror Movies, Stephen King From Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley Conception, Susan Tyler Hitchcock Why Vampires Never Die, Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead, Chuck Klosterman Japan’s Nuclear Nightmare: How the Bomb Became a Beast Called Godzilla, Peter H. Brothers Slender Man: A Myth of the Digital Age, Clarisse Loughrey Monsters and the Moral Imagination, Stephen T. Asma Chapter 2 How Do Monsters Reflect Their Times? Here Be Monsters, Ted Genoways The Birth of Monsters, Daniel Cohen From Beowulf, Anonymous Naanabozho and the Gambler, Gerald Vizenor Cursed by a Bite, Matt Kaplan Monstrous Beginnings, W. Scott Poole Get Ready for the Dawn of Superintelligence, Nick Bostrom Robbie, Isaac Asimov Chapter 3 How Does Gender Affect the Monster? Amy Fuller, The Evolving Legend of La Llorona Homer, from The Odyssey Sophia Kingshill, Reclaiming the Mermaid Ovid, The Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs Karen Hollinger, The Monster as Woman: Two Generations of Cat People Carol J. Clover, Final Girl Judith Halberstam, Bodies That Splatter: Queers and Chain Saws Chapter 4 What Is the Power of the Monster? Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Fear of the Monster Is Really a Kind of Desire Bram Stoker, from Dracula Karen Backstein, (Un)safe Sex: Romancing the Vampire Elizabeth A. Lawrence, Werewolves in Psyche and Cinema: Man-Beast Transformation and Paradox Robert Louis Stevenson, from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Erica McCrystal, Hyde as a Monster Villain Christian Jarrett, The Lure of Horror Chapter 5 Is the Monster within Us? Adolf Hitler, Nation and Race Patrick McCormick, Why Modern Monsters Have Become Alien to Us Thomas Fahy, Hobbes, Human Nature, and the Culture of American Violence in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood Anne E. Schwartz, Inside a Murdering Mind Richard Tithecott, The Horror in the Mirror: Average Joe and the Mechanical Monster William Andrew Myers, Ethical Aliens: The Challenge of Extreme Perpetrators to Humanism Kevin Berger, Why We Still Need Monsters Sentence Guides for Academic Writers Academic Writers Present Information and Others’ Views Academic Writers Present Their Own Views Academic Writers Persuade by Putting It All Together Appendix: Verbs Matter Notes Acknowledgments Index of Authors and Titles Inside Back Cover Back Cover