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Monster literature is a genre of literature that combines good and evil and intends to evoke a sensation of horror and terror in its readers by presenting the evil side in the form of a monster.
The themes and concepts of Monster Literature are rooted in 18th century Gothic literature. The earliest examples of Gothic literature can be traced all the way back to English author Horace Walpole's novel The Castle of Otranto (1764). [1] However, monster literature first emerged in the 19th century with the release of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818). Gothic literature includes elements of horror and terror as well as a victim who is helpless against his enemy or victimizer. This victimizer usually possesses some form of supernatural power or advantage over the victim, and uses it to cause strife in the life of the victim. In Monster literature, the victimizer is portrayed in the form of a monster that torments the protagonists. In addition, Gothic inspired Monster literature evokes extreme emotions of sorrow, desolation, and isolation.
In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein, driven by his insatiable desire for knowledge and enlightenment, creates a monster using body parts from deceased criminals in an attempt to make the perfect human being, one who is stronger and smarter than all others. Shortly after, Frankenstein regrets his creation and deserts it. The monster, endowed with superhuman strength and speed, torments Victor and his closest friends. The monster incites fear in Dr. Frankenstein as well as in the minds of villagers in the surrounding towns. The reader develops a sense of anger and disgust towards the monster for his actions against Dr. Frankenstein and his family but simultaneously feels sympathy for the monster because it is alone and unloved.
In Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), a lawyer named Mr. Utterson speaks with his friend Richard Enfield about an encounter he had with a repulsive hunchbacked man named Mr. Hyde. Soon Utterson finds that one of his clients, Dr. Jekyll, has written his will, giving all of his property to this strange man. It is revealed that Jekyll and Hyde are in fact one and the same, and that Jekyll has been using a potion he formulated to go between the two personalities. Hyde torments the town, while Jekyll apologizes and humbles his friends for Hyde's sake. Stevenson's novel invites hatred towards Hyde and shock upon the discovery of Jekyll's dual personality.
In Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), Jonathan Harker travels to Count Dracula's castle. Dracula inquires about buying a house in England, but soon Jonathan finds himself Dracula's prisoner. Harker escapes, but Dracula, recognized as a vampire, soon ventures away from his castle and begins to torment others close to Jonathan. Dracula is endowed with the power to turn into a bat, command wolves, and have incredible strength among other traits. However, Dracula and other vampires in the novel are weakened during the day and are repulsed by garlic and the crucifix. Dracula bites one of Johnathan's closest friends, Lucy Westenra, so Dr. Van Helsing calls upon various strong men to donate their blood to help cure her illness. Lucy dies from the sickness, but returns one night and begins tormenting people in the town. Soon, the doctors realize they must kill Lucy by driving a stake into her heart and cut off her head, for she has turned into a vampire. The vampires' actions mystify and torment the humans throughout the novel, causing grief and terror.
In Richard Matheson's I Am Legend (1954), Robert Neville is the last human alive on Earth. He secludes himself in his home, fortified with iron doors, mirrors, and garlic to keep away the infected vampire-like beings that remain after a mysterious infection has spread among the living creatures on earth. These infected beings, like vampires, only appear at night and taunt Neville with sexual promiscuity to come out of his home so they can suck his blood. Neville struggles with loneliness and a sense of desolation after losing his wife and daughter in a plane crash while trying to escape the epidemic, and combats these emotions with a constant stream of alcohol. Neville frequently reminisces about his most gut wrenching experiences, such as killing his own dog after she became infected. The reader is constantly sympathizing with Neville, as he is portrayed as helpless and isolated, lacking any real chance of living a pleasant life. The reader feels an overwhelming sensation of hopelessness, sadness, and sympathy for Neville.
In Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation (2014), the first novel in his Southern Reach trilogy, a team of four women venture out into a mysterious and ominous environment called Area X. Though Area X is named, the four women are not, which later contributes to a sense of dehumanization and thus monstrosity within the novel. Indeed, the monsters within Annihilation do not appear as recognizable, supernatural monsters, but rather, are described as both human and nonhuman, existing as a monstrous hybrid. An example of this type of monster is the Crawler, which is utterly incomprehensible to the main character, the Biologist, who declares she knows “nothing at all” [2] about nature and life after seeing it. This resistance to interpretation makes the monsters within Area X defined by their connection to humans, rather than their individual attributes. Another example of this portrayal of a monstrous hybrid is that of the moaning creature within Area X. While the protagonists hear its moaning throughout the novel, it is only at its end that the Biologist fully realizes that the moaning sounds human and inhuman, [3] and theorizes that the moaning creature “was, or had once been, human.” [3] Therefore, the ways in which Area X appears throughout the novel to physically change who is living inside of it, both human and nonhuman, blurs that boundary between humans and the environment. The effect of this is to create monsters that are too close to humans to be cast off as a supernatural other, as well as use those monsters in order to create a sense of dread within the story. This sense of dread is connected most clearly to the erasure of human exceptionalism, as the characters within Annihilation must struggle to understand that the environment holds power over them, rather than the other way around. This, in that struggle with monstrosity, is the only way they will survive Area X.
In earlier works, scientists and doctors were deemed as the most knowledgeable and were trusted by all even if they didn't provide proof for their claims. For example, in Dracula, Dr. Van Helsing claims to understand how vampires function. Without questioning, everyone accepts his proposal that vampires suck human's blood and follow his orders, donating their blood to Lucy.
Modern Monster literature written after World War II differs from earlier works in that modern pieces take on more technical explanations for supernatural occurrences. For example, in I Am Legend, Robert Neville notes to himself that Dracula "was a hodgepodge of superstitions and soap-opera clichés." He disowns prior beliefs about vampires including that they can transform into bats and wolves. These preconceived notions along with others regarding characteristics of vampires, have no scientifically proven data and therefore serve no credence in Neville's mind.
In addition, Monster literature since the turn of the century has been closely tied with the concept of the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene, a geological epoch term coined by Eugene Stoermer and Paul Crutzen in the year 2000, is distinctive in its focus on human’s significant impact on the environment, and the ways in which humans and the environment are connected. The Anthropocene has thus inspired many authors to craft a variety of stories that utilize these concepts of humans and the environment in differing ways, and one such way has been through the reworking of Monster literature.
In the book, Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene, monsters are described as useful figures “which to think of the Anthropocene, this time of massive human transformation of multispecies life and their uneven effects…monsters are the wonders of symbiosis and the threats of ecological description.” [4] Therefore, in Monster literature set during the Anthropocene, the monsters are not necessarily supernatural creatures that lurk in the night and prey on humans. Rather, they are often portrayed as being both human and nonhuman, exemplifying the monstrous horror behind this possible interrelation of species, and thus displacing human’s position of power over the environment as well as human exceptionalism in general. Themes of isolation and duality are emphasized, but there is often a lack of any sort of scientific breakthrough in novels, opting instead for the perspective of the environment as exerting control.
Some well-known examples of Anthropocene Monster literature include books by Jeff VanderMeer, as well as Agustina Bazterrica’s Tender is the Flesh . Even retellings, such as T. Kingfisher’s What Moves the Dead, tackle the Anthropocene even while writing in the tradition of Monster literature. A retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Kingfisher’s novella ensures the surrounding flora and fauna of the house take center stage and become the monstrosity to the human protagonists. By focusing on that “which is outside the anthropocentric,” [5] these modern examples of Monster literature “decenter the human animal and devolve the self into an uncanny weirdness.” [5] In doing so, the Anthropocene brings forth a new kind of monster to discover, explore and analyze.
Monster Literature focuses on how science influences the creation and destruction of supernatural evil beings. In Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein grows up during the Age of Enlightenment. It inspires him to the point that he is willing to give up love for his passion for science. Using the power of science, he is able to create a monstrous being that threatens the lives of many humans. In Dracula, scientific knowledge is used as the primary means of curing those infected by vampires. The scientists in the novel are highly revered and given everyone's utmost respect. In Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dr. Jekyll uses science to change his physical and mental appearance to the point when he is masked as an entirely different monstrous being known as Mr. Hyde. In I Am Legend, Robert Neville uses the most recent scientific advancements to search for preventative and curative medicine that will fight the vampire bacteria.
Monster Literature exerts feelings of isolation to its characters. For example, in Frankenstein, both Victor Frankenstein and the monster he creates are left isolated after they abandon their family members. Frankenstein obsesses over his scientific revelations and neglects his potential fiancé and the rest of his family. Once he has completed his creation, he abandons the monster leaving it alone to fend for itself. The monster then kills all of Frankenstein's friends and relatives as a means of retaliation leaving both of them dead.
Monster Literature often presents its characters as lonely and helpless beings. In I Am Legend, Robert Neville is the last human on Earth, or so he believes. His only company is the horde of vampires that linger around his house wanting to suck his blood and drain the human qualities from him. Neville suffers from the resonating silence that fills his home every day. He hears no voices and sees no friendly beings. At night he is tormented by the evil creatures outside his home.
The most obvious example of duality in Monster Literature is in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. By night, Dr. Jekyll turns into Mr. Hyde, his evil and monstrous side, and by day, he returns to his primary identity as Dr. Jekyll. With time, his duality begins to blend and he changes identity spontaneously. Other examples of duality in Monster Literature include vampires' resting state during the day and their evil rampages during the night (seen in both Dracula and I Am Legend).
Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of early Gothic novels.
Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon, in 1984, defined the horror story as "a piece of fiction in prose of variable length... which shocks, or even frightens the reader, or perhaps induces a feeling of repulsion or loathing". Horror intends to create an eerie and frightening atmosphere for the reader. Often the central menace of a work of horror fiction can be interpreted as a metaphor for larger fears of a society.
A monster is a type of fictional creature found in horror, fantasy, science fiction, folklore, mythology and religion. Monsters are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive with a strange, grotesque appearance that causes terror and fear. Monsters usually resemble bizarre, deformed, otherworldly and/or mutated animals or entirely unique creatures of varying sizes, but may also take a human form, such as mutants, ghosts and spirits, zombies or cannibals, among other things. They may or may not have supernatural powers, but are usually capable of killing or causing some form of destruction, threatening the social or moral order of the human world in the process.
Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve classic horror characters such as Baron Victor Frankenstein, Count Dracula, and the Mummy, which Hammer reintroduced to audiences by filming them in vivid colour for the first time. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies, as well as, in later years, television series.
Dr. Henry Jekyll, nicknamed in some copies of the story as Harry Jekyll, and his alternative personality, Mr. Edward Hyde, is the central character of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. In the story, he is a good friend of main protagonist Gabriel John Utterson. Jekyll is a kind and respected English doctor who has repressed evil urges inside of him. In an attempt to hide this, he develops a type of serum that he believes will effectively compartmentalize his dark side. Instead, Jekyll transforms into Edward Hyde, the physical and mental manifestation of his evil personality. This process happens more regularly until Jekyll becomes unable to control when the transformations occur.
Van Helsing is a 2004 action gothic horror film written and directed by Stephen Sommers. It stars Hugh Jackman as Dutch monster hunter Van Helsing, and Kate Beckinsale as Anna Valerious. Van Helsing is both a homage and tribute to the Universal Horror Monster films from the 1930s and 1940s, of which Sommers is a fan.
The Gothic double is a literary motif which refers to the divided personality of a character. Closely linked to the Doppelgänger, a term which first appeared in the 1796 novel Siebenkas by Johann Paul Richter, the double figure emerged in Gothic literature in the late 18th century due to a resurgence of interest in mythology and folklore which explored notions of duality, such as the fetch in Irish folklore which refers to a double figure of a family member, often signifying an impending death.
Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde is a 1976 blaxploitation horror film loosely inspired by the 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. The film stars Bernie Casey and Rosalind Cash, and was directed by William Crain. Along with Crain, the film was written by Larry LeBron and Lawrence Woolner with cinematography by Tak Fujimoto. The movie was filmed primarily in Los Angeles, at locations such as the Watts Towers. Along with other blaxploitation films, Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde is filled with themes surrounding ideas of race, class, and Black Power, yet it is unique in depicting these themes through the genre of horror.
The Dracula Society is a London-based literature and travel group with an interest in supernatural and macabre works of fiction, as exemplified by Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Van Helsing is an action-adventure video game for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Game Boy Advance, which is based on the 2004 action horror film of the same name by Stephen Sommers. Hugh Jackman and Richard Roxburgh reprise their roles from the film. The game is one of the few games on Playstation 2 that can run in 480p.
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is an 1886 novella written by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It is about a London lawyer, Gabriel John Utterson, who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll and the misanthropic Mr. Hyde. In a twist ending, it is revealed that Jekyll and Hyde were the same person, and that Jekyll had regularly transformed himself into Hyde by drinking a serum.
Urban Gothic is a subgenre of Gothic fiction, film horror and television dealing with industrial and post-industrial urban society. It was pioneered in the mid-19th century in Britain, Ireland and the United States and developed in British novels such as Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), and Irish novels such as Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). In the twentieth century, urban Gothic influenced the creation of the subgenres of Southern Gothic and suburban Gothic. From the 1980s, interest in the urban Gothic revived with books like Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles and a number of graphic novels that drew on dark city landscapes, leading to adaptations in film including Batman (1989), The Crow (1994) and From Hell (2001), as well as influencing films like Seven (1995).
Mary Shelley's Frankenhole is an American adult stop-motion animated television series created by Dino Stamatopoulos. The series premiered on June 27, 2010 on Cartoon Network's late night programming block Adult Swim. It ended on March 25, 2012, with a total of 20 episodes, over the course of 2 seasons.
Mad Mad Mad Monsters is a 1972 traditional animated comedy film produced by Rankin/Bass Productions in the United States and animated overseas by Mushi Production in Japan. The special aired on September 23, 1972 as an episode of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie. It is "related" to the 1967 stop motion animated film Mad Monster Party?
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a 1886 Gothic novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It follows Gabriel John Utterson, a London-based legal practitioner who investigates a series of strange occurrences between his old friend Dr. Henry Jekyll and a murderous criminal named Edward Hyde.
Mel Foster and the Demon Butler is a 2015 gothic children's novel by Julia Golding. Golding also writes under the pen names of Joss Stirling and Eve Edwards. Mel Foster and the Demon Butler has been published by Egmont Publishing in August 2015. The publishing deal was announced in January 2015. The novel is the first book in an adventure series. The next book, Mel Foster and the Time Machine, was published in April 2016.
A Gothic film is a film that is based on Gothic fiction or contains Gothic elements. Since various definite film genres—including science fiction, film noir, thriller, and comedy—have used Gothic elements, the Gothic film is challenging to define clearly as a genre. Gothic elements have also infused the horror film genre, contributing supernatural and nightmarish elements. To create a Gothic atmosphere, filmmakers have sought to create new camera tricks that challenge audiences' perceptions. Gothic films also reflected contemporary issues. A New Companion to The Gothic's Heidi Kaye said "strong visuals, a focus on sexuality and an emphasis on audience response" characterize Gothic films like they did the literary works. The Encyclopedia of the Gothic said the foundation of Gothic film was the combination of Gothic literature, stage melodrama, and German expressionism.
The Wolf Man is the title of several horror film series centered on Larry Talbot, a man who upon being bitten by a werewolf becomes one himself, and his subsequent attempts to cure himself of his murderous condition. The franchise was created by Curt Siodmak.
The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter is a 2017 novel by Theodora Goss. It is her debut novel, though she is an author of many short works. Strange Case is the first installment of The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club series, and is followed by European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman. The story follows Mary Jekyll, daughter of the literary character Dr. Jekyll, as she meets and connects with the fictional daughters of major literary characters, and works with and faces various famous 19th century literary personae, including Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Frankenstein's monster, and others to solve the mystery of a series of killings in London, as well as the mystery of her own family story. Drawing on classic gothic and horror creations of the 19th century, such as The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein, Rappaccini's Daughter, The Island of Doctor Moreau, Dracula and the Sherlock Holmes stories, Goss reimagines the works of such literary greats as Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson, H. G. Wells, Bram Stoker and Nathaniel Hawthorne from a feminist perspective, as well as the historical record of the Jack the Ripper murders. At the center of the narrative is the connection and various experiences of the women who form the Athena Club, the oppressions they experience, and how they empower each other to accomplish great things.
The history of horror films is one that was described by author Siegbert Solomon Prawer as difficult to read as a linear historical path, with the genre changing throughout the decades, based on the state of cinema, audience tastes and contemporary world events.
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