Tag Archives: cultures

Titles of Interest – Monsters of Film, Fiction, and Fable: The Cultural Link Between the Human and the Inhuman

Monsters of Film, Fiction, and Fable: The Cultural Link Between the Human and the Inhuman Edited by Lisa Wenger Bro, Crystal O’Leary-Davidson, and Mary Ann Gareis Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018 Monsters are a part of every society, and ours is no exception. They are deeply embedded in our history, our mythos, and our culture. However, […]

Mythicworlds: Straddling the way between sci-fi conventions and transformational festivals?

I’m finishing the editing of a manuscript for McFarland that explores aspects of fantastic fan cultures in relation to the sacred. I am waiting for one more chapter to be submitted and then the manuscript goes off for peer review. In addition to editing and writing he Introduction I am contributing a chapter that contrasts […]

Titles of Interest – Beyond the Monstrous: Reading from the Cultural Imaginary

Beyond the Monstrous: Reading from the Cultural Imaginary (Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2013), edited by Janice Zehentbauer and Eva Gledhill Twenty-first century’s fascination with monsters in popular culture is not new. Throughout history, many of the world’s cultures have created beings they deem ‘other’ and ‘monstrous,’ beings which, many scholars agree, ultimately reveal humans’ own fears about […]

La Santa Muerte: Mexico’s Saint of Sacred Death

This morning I was catching up on various essays at Religion Dispatches and I came across one that especially caught my attention. It was titled “Death Couture: Not for Halloween Only,” with the byline “De-exoticizing Mexico’s patron saint of death,” by Stephen Andes. This fascinating essay describes La Santa Muerte, translated as “Holy Death” or […]

Monster Theory: Culture, Monstrousness and Ourselves

As I searched Amazon.com for reading materials related to the fantastic to add to my wishlist the description of Monster Theory: Reading Culture (University of Minnesota Press, 1996) struck me as intriguing: “Explores concepts of monstrosity in Western civilization from Beowulf to Jurassic Park. “We live in a time of monsters. Monsters provide a key […]

Gilmore: Anthropology and Monsters in Cultural Imagination

In a previous post I mentioned the work of Dr. David Gilmore, an anthropologist who teaches at Stony Brook University. He is the author of Monsters: Evil Beings, Mythical Beasts, and All Manner of Imaginary Terrors (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002), an interesting book that provides an anthropological perspective on monsters in various cultures. Dr. […]

An Anthropologist Considers Our Monsters

A recent e-newsletter from the Constructing Horror website introduced an interesting topic: “The beasts of past days have given birth to a new kind of creature. In movies like Saw and 28 Days Later, the monsters are powerful and horrifying. But the concept of evil has been turned around on the audiences and what once […]

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