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"MONSTER CULTURE (SEVEN THESES)" DISCUSSION

"Monster Culture (Seven Theses)" by Jeffery Jerome Cohen is, perhaps, the most difficult reading of the semester. It's written by an academic for academics, and I'm assigning it for two reasons. First, it offers a very compelling set of definitions about monsters that are useful theoretical lenses for analyzing monsters in pop culture and social labeling. Second, it poses a genuine challenge to most readers in a first-year composition course, stretching your ability to read difficult texts. The more encounters you have with difficult readings, the more tools you will have in the future to tackle texts that you will need to understand (be it a contract, a legal document, technical writings in your field, and so on).

Given how difficult the reading is, we have a much more formal discussion board response to do in order to build a repository for everyone to use to better understand what is going on. Towards that end, I am assigning each of you ONE thesis to discuss on the discussion board. There are two basic tasks you need to accomplish:

• PART 1: Write a long response to your assigned thesis that answer the questions below about just your assigned thesis. I am expecting about a page of written response, double-spaced in MLA format. That does not include repeating the questions, although if you want to copy and paste the questions into your response and answer underneath each question, that's okay.
• PART 2: Write 4-8 sentences in response to two different theses. Read a response to a different thesis than yours and explain why you agree or disagree with part or all of the response. Then do it again for another thesis.
  
  
• NOTE: When you give a quotation, give the page number from the article so that people can find it.
• NOTE: Your goal is to help people understand the thesis you are assigned to interpret. Your answers may help people figure out what Cohen is saying and how they might use your thesis in a paper.

Assigned Theses (by last name):

• Thesis 1 Patel, Colon
• Thesis 2 Singer, Martin
• Thesis 3 Koroma, Alphonse
• Thesis 4 Turner, Gimpel,
• Thesis 5 Craig, Banks, Conovor
• Thesis 6 Grant, Brown, Cox
• Thesis 7: it's not really a thesis, so I'm not assigning it.

Questions:

Reminder: do only the questions for your assigned thesis. I have broken down the "threads" in our discussion forum by thesis, so post your response there.

Thesis I: The Monster's Body Is a Cultural Body

• How does the image of the "crossroads" help introduce the idea of the monster as a cultural construct?
• Why does Cohen see the monster as a "glyph" (4)? Why does he suggest that "the monster exists only to be read" (4)?
• How can you apply this idea to any of the monsters we have read about (or watched) in class thus far?

Thesis II: The Monster Always Escapes

• Cohen observes that "No monster tastes of death but once" but then links that apparently obvious statement to cultural "anxiety" and a "propensity to shift" (5). What kind of "shift" do monsters reborn make? How can this help us to understand the anxieties and issues in a culture?
• Why does the shifting image of the vampire support Cohen's claim?
• How can you apply this idea to any of the monsters we have read about (or watched) in class thus far?

Thesis III: The Monster Is the Harbinger of Category Crisis

• What's a "Harbinger"?
• What words are throwing off your ability to interpret this section of the essay? Share any of the definitions you looked up with your group and then seen if that helps to understand the essay a bit more.
• Why is the ability to categorize a person, place, or thing so important to people? How does this support a "system" or a cultural perspective?
• Why do monsters threaten our system? Does their existence merely make us uncomfortable, or is there a larger threat to the system?
• Identify a key quote in this section that you think is central to understanding the issues related to category crisis.
• How can you apply this idea to any of the monsters we have read about (or watched) in class thus far?

Thesis IV: The Monster Dwells at the Gates of Difference

• Cohen argues, "the monster is an incorporation of the Outside, the Beyond--of all those loci that are rhetorically placed as distant and distinct but originate Within" (7). What does he mean by the terms "Outside" and "Beyond"? How can these concepts be said to "originate Within"? Why the weird capitalization?
• What social categories does "monstrous difference" tend to involve? What power does labeling a group "monstrous" give to the group using the label?
• How does "scapegoating" fit into this argument (11)?
• How does the monster's difference offer an alternative? Why is this "dangerous"?
• Identify a key quote in this section that you think is central to understanding the issues related to category crisis.
• How can you apply this idea to any of the monsters we have read about (or watched) in class thus far?

Thesis V: The Monster Polices the Borders of the Possible

• How does the image of the monster police social norms?
• What examples does Cohen give of "the monster of prohibition" (13)? How do such monsters help support social hierarchies?
• How does Cohen use his discussion of incest and miscegenation (reproductive mixing of the races) to illustrate both the police-monster and the hierarchies it protects?
• Identify a key quote in this section that you think is central to understanding the issues related to category crisis.
• How can you apply this idea to any of the monsters we have read about (or watched) in class thus far?

Thesis VI: The Monster Is Really a Kind of Desire

• Cohen links monsters to the idea of the "repressed," the attraction of "forbidden practices" (16), "escapist fantasies" and "freedom" (17). Why? What is the appeal of the monster?
• How do representations of monsters allow people to explore this appeal--and how is it normally reined in to restore social norms?
• What exactly is "abjection" (19)? How does it help readers to understand the attraction/repulsion split people feel towards monsters?
• Identify a key quote in this section that you think is central to understanding the issues related to category crisis.
• How can you apply this idea to any of the monsters we have read about (or watched) in class thus far?

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Date site created: May 15, 2020