RHET 450PMonsters & Monstrosity

Catalog

RHET 450P Monsters & Monstrosity - Some medieval writers believed that the word "monster" meant an omen, or showing- a demonstration of the wonders of the world and divine creativity. Yet throughout the Middle Ages, writers also used monsters to explore their greatest fears around race, sexuality, gender, and religion, at times strategically demonizing minorities in their works by turning them into literal monsters. In this class, we will explore this tension between fear and beauty, reading stories of noble werewolves, poetry denouncing bloodthirsty giants, and travelogues describing the wondrous other races that were believed to inhabit the edges of the world: from humans with the heads of dogs to people with one giant foot that they used as an umbrella. Throughout this course we will trace the long literary tradition of representing non-privileged and outside groups (e.g., women, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, neurodivergent, and/or disabled peoples) as something beyond "normal"- in order to better understand how these medieval traditions have impacted our contemporary thinking.