Foucault, in his archaeology of the Abnormal, reviews the shifting relations between the normal, the abnormal and the sexually deviant to explain the transgressive quality and moral challenge embodied by the monster, which, in Foucault’s words, is ‘a monstrosity of conduct rather than the monstrosity of nature’ (p. Two, the ‘individual to be corrected’, so that they confirm with the law, and three, specifically the ‘masturbator’ who breaks moral law. When it comes to defining ‘monster’ and ‘monstrosity’, Foucault in his lectures on the Abnormal ( 2003) differentiates between three, different figures: one, the ‘human monster’, i.e., someone or something who has the ‘capacity to create anxiety due to the fact that it violates the law by its very existence’ (p. Monsters, despite any kind of reservation, have a lot to offer. The range of literary perspectives and multidisciplinary connections across this special collection brings into focus the pertinent theoretical and methodological challenges relating to how the monstrous finds application not only in critical thinking but also in teaching contexts. Analysis of Frankenstein’s Monster has led to discussions of new forms of humanity and reflections on social relations as well as gender (Hedrich-Hirsch, 1996 Creed, 1993). The novel has been considered as a pre-cursor to Science Fiction (Seed, 1995), it has been interrogated through feminist approaches (Hodges, 1983), queer theory (Rigby, 2009), and in the context of the Gothic as well as in examinations of slavery and racism where Frankenstein functions as a metaphor to politically critique discourses of power, identity and nature with (Sterrenburg, 1979 Collings, 2009 Mulvery-Roberts, 2016 Young, 2008).
Frankenstein has also inspired many movies with the Monster being portrayed as a grotesque, an innocent and a source of humour, further influencing a range of film hybrid genres, such as Science-Fiction Horror (Picart, 2003). Performance adaptations started with Presumption or, the Fate of Frankenstein, written by Richard Brinsley Peake, first shown in London in 1823 and the most recent is Liam Scarlett’s adaption for the Royal Ballet (ROH, 2019). In the twentieth century, these include sequels (Myers, 1975) and retellings (Ackroyd, 2008 Aldiss et al., 2016), as well as the use of the name ‘Frankenstein’ as a token for horror in subsequent novels from the 1950s onwards (Carrière, 2016). Indeed, responses to Shelley’s novel have proliferated across a range of genres and media since its publication and continue to spawn contemporary reactions. Frankenstein has become a significant cultural reference point. The reception of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) offers many opportunities for academic research to intersect with popular culture.
This commentary article considers the use of the concepts of ‘monsters’ or ‘monstrosity’ in literature, contemporary research, culture and teaching contexts at the intersection of the Humanities and the Social Sciences. The encounter with a monster can enable us to stop, wonder and change our attitudes towards technology, our body and each other. They still cater to the appetite for horror, but they also encourage us to feel empathy. Through their playful and invigorating energy they can be seen to disrupt and unsettle. Monsters are strong, resilient, creative and sly creatures. Monsters in contemporary culture, however, have become more humane than ever before. Academic debates tend to explore how social and cultural threats come to be embodied in the figure of a monster and their actions literalise our deepest fears (Gilmore, 2009 Scott, 2007). 66), evidences a ‘particular type of monster’.
Stephen Asma ( 2009) notes that monsters represent evil or moral transgression and each epoch, to speak with Michel Foucault (Abnormal: lectures at the Collège de France, 1975–75, 2003, p. Monsters serve as metaphors for anxieties of aberration and innovation (Punter and Byron, 2004). The enduring impact of Shelley’s novel, which spans a plethora of subjects and genres in imagery and themes, raises questions of origin and identity, death, birth and family relationships, as well as the contradictory qualities of the monster. This is partly due to the popular reception of Mary Shelley’s Monster, termed a ‘new species’ by its overreaching but admiringly determined maker Victor Frankenstein in the eponymous novel first published in 1818. There is a continued fascination with all things monster.
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