analyze a story about a monster(″It″ by Stephen King). You must work closely with the text, both analyzing the material and using it as support. 1) Develop an understanding of how Cohen examines monsters as metaphors for personal, societal, and cultural fears and anxieties so you can use his framework for your own analysis. 2) Next, analyze how Cohen’s seven theses of monster culture can explain the representation of the monster in your chosen text(″It″ by Stephen King) 3) If you choose, look for moments in your chosen text where Cohen’s theory doesn’t adequately explain the representation of the monster. Seven Theses by J.J. Cohen http://ls-tlss.ucl.ac.uk/course-materials/HARTG075_73436.pdf Thesis 1: The Monster is a Cultural Body (born by metaphoric crossroads as an embodiment of a certain cultural moment-time, feeling, place) Thesis 2: The Monster always escapes (it can reappear) Thesis 3: The Monster is the harbinger of category crisis (refuse to be in any category, resist attempts to include them in any systematic structuration) Thesis 4: The Monster Dwells at the Gates of Difference (an incorpotation of the Outside, the Beyond; the most part monstrous difference ends to be cultural, political, racial, economic, sexual) Thesis 5: The Monster Polices the Borders of the possible (warns, prevents mobility(intellectual, geographic, sexual) delimiting the social spaces, every monster is in its way double narrative,two stories(one describes how the monster came to be and another its testinomy,detailing what cultural use the monster serves)) (monster is transgressive, too sexual, perversely erotic, a lawbreaker; so it has to be destroyed) Thesis 6: Fear of the monster is really a kind of desire (despite being linked to forbidden practices the monster also attracts,the cooptation of the monster int the symbol of the desirable is often accomplished through the neutralization of the potentially threatening aspects with a liberal dose of comedy, sometimes ppl become someone new) Thesis 7: The Monster Stands at the Threshold of Becoming (when the com back hey bring knowledge of our place in history,bear self-knowledge and a discourse all the more sacred as it arises from the outside, monsters ask us how we percieve the world, hey ask us to reevaluate our cultural assumptions about race,gender,sexuality and etc., hey ask us why we created them)
