From the eighth to the fourteenth century, places of wonder and dread appear in a wide variety of genres in Old and Middle English: epics, lays, romances, saints’ lives, travel narratives, marvel collections, visions of the afterlife. These places appear in narratives of the other world, a term which in Old and Middle English texts refers to the Christian afterlife: Hell, Purgatory, even Paradise can be fraught with wonder, danger, and the possibility of harm. But in addition to the other world, there are places that are not theologically separate from the human world, but that are nevertheless both marvellous and horrifying: the monster-mere in Beowulf, the Faerie kingdom of Sir Orfeo, the demon-ridden Vale Perilous in Mandeville’s Travels, or the fearful landscape of the Green Chapel in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Fraught with horror or the possibility of harm, these places are profoundly different from the presented or implied home world of the text. My dissertation investigates how Old and Middle English narratives create places of wonder and dread; how they situate these places metaphysically between the world of living mortals and the world of the afterlife; how they furnish these places with dangerous topography and monstrous inhabitants, as well as with motifs, with tropes, and with thematic concerns that signal their marvellous and fearful nature. I argue that the heart of this poetics of marvellous spaces is displacement. Their wonder and dread comes from boundaries that these places blur and cross, from the resistance of these places to being known or mapped, and from the deliberate distancing between these places and the home of their texts. This overarching concern with displacement encourages the migration of iconographic motifs, tropes, and themes across genre boundaries and theological categories.

Although mythological monsters have rarely been examined in any collective and comprehensive manner, they constitute an important cosmic presence in archaic and classical Greek poetry. This thesis brings together insights from the scholarly areas of 'monster studies' and the 'sensory turn' in order to offer readings of the sounds made by monsters. I argue that the figure of the monster in Greek poetry, although it has positive attributes, does not have a fixed definition or position within the cosmos. Instead of using definitions of monstrosity to think about the role and status of Greek monsters, this thesis demonstrates that by listening to the sounds of the monster's voice, it is possible to chart its position in the cosmos. Monsters with incomprehensible, cacophonous, or dangerous voices pose greater threats to cosmic order; those whose voices are semiotic and anthropomorphic typically pose less serious threats. The thesis explores the shifting depictions of monsters according to genre and author. In Chapter 1, 'Hesiod's Theogony: The Role of Monstrosity in the Cosmos', I consider Hesiod's genealogies of monsters that circulate and threaten in the nonhuman realm, while the universe is still undergoing processes of organisation. Chapter 2, 'Homer's Odyssey: Mingling with Monsters', discusses the monster whom Odysseus encounters and even imitates in order to survive his exchanges with them. In Chapter 3, 'Monsters in Greek Lyric Poetry: Voices of Defeat', I examine Stesichorus' Geryoneis and the presence of Centaurs, Typhon, and Gorgons in Pindar's Pythian 1, 2, 3, and 12. In lyric, we find that these monsters are typically presented in terms of the monster's experience of defeat at the hands of a hero or a god. This discussion is followed by two chapters that explore the presence of the monster in Greek tragedy, entitled 'Centripetal Monsters in Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound and Oresteia' and 'Centrifugal Monsters in Greek Tragedy: Euripides and Sophocles.' Here, I argue that in tragedy the monster, or the abstractly 'monstrous', is located within the figure of the human being and within the polis. The coda, 'Monstrous Mimesis and the Power of Sound', considers not only monstrous voices, but monstrous music, examining the mythology surrounding the aulos and looking at the sonic developments generated by the New Musicians.

ABSTRACT Medieval xenophobia fostered attitudes that viewed anything foreign or distasteful as monstrous. Accordingly, insular inhabitants of the Middle Ages were constantly striving to distinguish Self from Other. My dissertation argues that sixteenth-century England began to reverse this trend: it began to reconcile difference, not by distinguishing Self from Other, but by blurring those distinctions. Visions of ancient Self and contemporary Other began to fuse as proponents of Imperial Britain sought to assimilate foreign monsters that were once considered barbaric, inferior, or inhuman. This method of assimilation is especially apparent during the Elizabethan Age of conquest in the New World. England's prophetic destiny was inextricably tied to its epic history, its Trojan ancestry, and its most glorified rulers, Brutus and his distant successor, King Arthur. Thus, reestablishing and rewriting Britain's legendary past became an exercise in securing its future. I maintain that John Dee (c. 1527-1608/9) and Edmund Spenser (c. 1552-1599) strategically fused ancient Britain and the New World via the figures of King Arthur and his alleged descendant, Queen Elizabeth. Portions of Dee's Brytanici Imperii Limites are explored to illustrate this connection, as are some of his arcane mystical pursuits. I further examine sections of Spenser's Faerie Queene in relation to Queen Elizabeth and King Arthur, and interpret Arthur in Faery lond as a metaphor for England in the New World. My introduction establishes the key features of the Galfridian tradition and its significance to the Tudor dynasty. It further discusses medieval perceptions of the monstrous that influenced the early-modern era. Subsequent chapters argue that England's assimilation of Other extended to pagan deities and giants, Native Americans, ancient Israelites, and (in Elizabeth's case) to the feminine Other. My final chapter demonstrates how Queen Elizabeth, via her affiliation with King Arthur, became a temporal bridge uniting England's epic past with its future glory.

O objetivo desta tese é analisar as criaturas amiúde consideradas monstruosas bem como os termos geralmente traduzidos por monstro presentes em três poemas da tradição de poesia hexamétrica arcaica, a saber, a Teogonia de Hesíodo, o Hino Homérico a Apolo e a Odisseia de Homero. A análise dessas criaturas tem como foco o modo como são descritas e o papel que desempenham nas narrativas contidas nesses poemas, para a qual são utilizadas como abordagem teórico-metodológica a referencialidade tradicional proposta e desenvolvida por John Miles Foley ao longo da década de 1990 bem como a perspectiva de que os poemas que constituem a tradição hexamétrica arcaica compõem uma história do cosmo, conforme desenvolvida por Barbara Graziosi e Johannes Haubold na década de 2000. Como resultado da análise das criaturas, de um lado, e dos termos traduzidos por monstro, de outro, questiona-se a pertinência da categoria monstro como geralmente pressuposta para essas criaturas no mundo moderno, tendo-se em vista que ela possa não existir na poesia hexamétrica arcaica, já que fazem parte de um sistema de pensamento em um mundo ainda não desencantado em termos weberianos, no qual a realidade empírica e a esfera divina enquanto representativa do sobrenatural estão profundamente imbricadas. Como instrumental teórico-metodológico para o questionamento acerca da existência ou não do monstro enquanto categoria em tal tradição poética, lançou-se mão das teorias de categorização de Wittgenstein, desenvolvida nas décadas de 1940 e 1950, daquelas desenvolvidas por Eleanor Rosch e sua equipe durante a década de 1970, bem como as presentes nas obras de George Lakoff a partir da década de 1980. A proposição de que a categoria monstro como pressuposta e entendida no mundo moderno é inexistente para a poesia hexamétrica arcaica tem implicações na compreensão moderna dessas criaturas, que devem ser percebidas enquanto integrantes de um cosmo que não separa o sobrenatural, o maravilhoso e o divino nos mesmos termos que o faz a sociedade moderna ocidental, revelando a necessidade de compreender essas criaturas sob o ponto de vista da tradição que as criou ou as incorporou e ressignificou. / The aim of this thesis is to analyse the creatures often considered monstrous as well as the words generally translated as monster in three poems belonging to the tradition of archaic hexametric poetry, namely, Hesiod\'s Theogony, the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, and Homer\'s Odyssey. The analysis of the creatures focuses on the ways they are described and the role they play in the narratives presented in those poems. The theoretical and methodological approach used to such analysis is the traditional referenciality proposed and developed by John Miles Foley in the 1990\'s in addition to the perspective that such poems that inform the archaic hexametric tradition constitute a history of the cosmos, as developed by Barbara Graziosi and Johannes Haubold during the 2000\'s. The analysis of the creatures, in one hand, and of the words translated by monster, in the other, results in questioning the validity of the monster category as usually taken for granted in the modern world, considering that it might not exist in archaic hexametric poetry, since those creatures are part of a system of thought in a world not yet disenchanted in Weberian terms, in which the empirical reality and the divine sphere as representative of the supernatural are deeply entangled. As theoretical and methodological framework for questioning the existence of monster as a category in such poetical tradition, this thesis adopted the theories of categorization formulated by Wittgenstein during the 1940\'s and 1950\'s, as well as the theories developed by Eleanor Rosch and her team during the 1970\'s, along with the ones presented by George Lakoff from 1980\'s onward. The proposition that the category of monster as pressuposed and understood by the modern world is non-existent in archaic hexametric poetry has consequences to the modern understanding of those creatures which must be perceived as part of a cosmos that does not separate the supernatural, the wonderful, and the divine in the same terms as the modern western world does, revealing the need to understand those creatures under the point of view of the tradition that created them or incorporated and ressignified them.

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(anglicky) The main question of this thesis is whether the Christian church used stories containing monster beings with the aim of converting the Anglo-Saxon society to the new faith. This question is looked at through interpretative and content analysis of several Old English texts from the Nowell Codex. These are: the heroic-elegiac poem Béowulf, the travelogue The Letter of Alexander to Aristotle, the hagiographic text The Passion of St Christopher and the bestiary Liber Monstrorum, which is the only afore mentioned text not included in the Nowell Codex. The first chapter of this thesis provides a basic summary of the perception of monster beings from the prehistoric times to the Middle Ages. The next chapter analyses the role of the hero, nature and the distance of the British Isles from the centre of the World as perceived at the time. This chapter ends with the analysis of the pagan elements in the poem Béowulf. The last chapter focuses on the interpretations of monster beings in Christian settings and analyses the chosen Old English texts on a Christian interpretative level. The thesis arrives at the conclusion that the Church of the 6th to 10th century didn't use the motifs of various monsters on purpose. On the contrary, it seems that Germanic and Christian elements freely converged, and...

The artist discusses his Master of Fine Arts exhibit, titled DUNIDEDCUDIGUNADIE. The exhibit is to be held at the Tipton Gallery in downtown Johnson City, TN, from April 2nd to April 10th, 2020. A live reception will be held the evening of April 3rd, featuring a performance with the work, titled Look at You! The following thesis explores the artist’s formative years – investigating how childhood experiences combine with artistic and theoretical influences to inform his art-making process.

This thesis explores the social criticism expressed in the two films Gremlins (Joe Dante, USA,1984) and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (Joe Dante, USA, 1990) and how the films criticizeUS-consumer culture in the Reagan Era, addressing the wide-spread economic problems.To find an answer I have asked the following questions; in what way do the Gremlins filmsexpress social criticism, what are the threats and what functions do they have and has socialcriticism developed between the films and if so how? My hypothesis is that through anallegorical story, Dante attacks the capitalist society, and he does so by letting gremlins,monsters that previously attacked the machines of the allied forces during World War II,destroy the safe society that the Reagan advocated. The home, the finances and even SantaClaus himself, no one is safe from Dante's criticism.The films also reflect the fear of the unknown, such as the Soviet Union, the Asian market andthe African American population. In this thesis I arguethat the films, rather than perpetuatingthis fear, criticize it in the hope that some form of consensus can be created. I have alsodiscovered that the creatures in the movies reflect desire, greed and violence, and I believethat Dante may well want to tell us that the very thing that separates us from becomingGremlins which will lead to our total destruction is our desire to be better than them. If thatwill doesn’t exist inside us, consumption and fear will not disappear, but instead increase. Ihope my analysis of Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch will provide a broaderperspective on the genre. Because if two simple monster movies have been shown to criticizeseveral major societal problems in American society, what more overlooked horror movieshave done the same thing and deserve to be discussed?

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The state often enacts violence against marginalized groups by rendering them monstrous. The early eighteenth century saw early and stellar instances of this phenomenon in the way the British Empire pursued and executed pirates. These "golden age" pirates represented an extraordinary cross-section of marginalization politically, economically, socially, and otherwise, all of which threatened the political and social mores of Imperial Britain. In order to implement a policy and practice of pirate annihilation, British authorities constructed pirates as monstrous by racializing, dehumanizing, and emphasizing the supernatural quality of pirates. This study analyzes three eighteenth-century piracy trial transcripts--those of William Kidd, Stede Bonnet, and William Fly--in order to assess how lawyers and judges constructed pirates as monstrous so as to justify the massive and total violence inflicted on them as a class resulting in their complete destruction. In so doing, this study tracks rhetorical tactics and strategies still used by empires and the state today against marginalized peoples to an original historical source.