Buch, Englisch, 360 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 708 g
ISBN: 978-0-19-957702-6
Verlag: ACADEMIC
A new and compelling account of the interconnectedness of history, medicine, politics, myth, and literature in early modern culture
Charts the process of sustained and distinctive change in the cultural significance of the monstrous from the mid-sixteenth century to the late seventeenth
Includes original readings of major works of French literature by Montaigne, Rabelais, Ronsard, and Racine
All French passages are translated
To call something 'monstrueux' in the mid-sixteenth century is, more often than not, to wonder at ist enormous size: it is to call to mind something like a whale. By the late seventeenth 'monstrueux' is more likely to denote hidden intentions, unspoken desires. Several shifts are at work in this word history, and in what Othello calls the 'mighty magic' of monsters; these shifts can be described in a number of ways. The clearest, and most compelling, is the translation or migration of the monstrous from natural history to moral philosophy, from descriptions of creatures found in the external world to the drama of human motivation, of sexual and political identity.
This interdisciplinary study of monsters and their meanings advances by way of a series of close readings supported by the exploration of a wide range of texts and images, from many diverse fields, which all concern themselves with illicit coupling, unarranged marriages, generic hybridity, and the politics of monstrosity. Engaging with recent, influential accounts of monstrosity - from literary critical work (Huet, Greenblatt, Thomson Burnett, Hampton), to histories of science and 'bio-politics' (Wilson, Céard, Foucault, Daston and Park, Agamben) - it focusses on the ways in which monsters give particular force, colour, and shape to the imagination; the image at ist centre is the triangulated picture of Andromeda, Perseus and the monster, approaching.
The centre of the book's gravity is French culture, but it also explores Shakespeare, and Italian, German, and Latin culture, as well as the ways in which the monstrous tales and images of Antiquity were revived across the period, and survive into our own times.
Zielgruppe
Students and scholars of early modern literature and culture
Autoren/Hrsg.
Fachgebiete
Weitere Infos & Material
List of images
Note on translations and references
Introduction: 'Mighty Magic'
1: Rabelais's monsters: Andromeda, natural history, and romance
2: 'Monstrueuses guerres': Ronsard, mythology, and the writing of war
3: Montaigne's children: metaphor, medicine, and the imagination
4: Corneille's Andromeda: painting, medicine, and the politics of spectacle
5: Pascal's monsters: angels, beasts, and human being
6: Racine's children: the end of the line
Epilogue: Between testimony and hearsay
Bibliography
Index
