| Edition |
Second edition. |
| Description |
xxiv, 311 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-299), filmography (pages 253-255), and index. |
| Contents |
Preface to the second edition -- Preface to the original edition: With a warning to the unsuspecting reader -- Introduction: The bloody chords of memory -- Monstrous beginnings -- Goth Americana -- Weird science -- Alien invasions -- Deviant bodies -- Haunted houses -- Undead Americans -- Conclusion: Worse things waiting. |
| Summary |
Scott Poole's central argument is that monster tales intertwine with America's troubled history of racism, politics, class struggle, and gender inequality. The second edition of Monsters leads readers deeper into America's tangled past to show how monsters continue to haunt contemporary American ideology. By adding new discussions of the American West, Poole focuses intently on the Native American experience. He reveals how monster stories went west to Sand Creek and Wounded Knee, bringing the preoccupation with monsters into the twentieth century through the American Indian Movement. Poole's tale connects to the present -- illustrating the relationship between current social movements and their historical antecedents. This proven textbook also studies the social location of contemporary horror films, exploring, for example, how Get Out emerged from the context of the Black Lives Matter movement. Finally, in the new section "American Carnage," Poole challenges readers to assess what their own monster tales might be and how our sordid past horrors express themselves in our present cultural anxieties. By the end of the book, Poole cautions that America's monsters aren't going away anytime soon. If specters of the past still haunt our present, they may yet invade our future. Monsters are here to stay |
| Subject |
Monsters -- Symbolic aspects -- United States.
|
|
Monsters -- Symbolic aspects. |
|
United States. |
|
Supernatural -- Symbolic aspects -- United States.
|
|
Supernatural. |
|
Popular culture -- United States -- History.
|
|
Popular culture. |
|
History. |
|
Horror tales, American.
|
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Horror tales, American. |
|
Race relations -- Religious aspects.
|
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Race relations -- Religious aspects. |
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Superstition -- Social aspects -- United States.
|
|
Superstition. |
|
Social aspects. |
|
Symbolism in folklore -- United States.
|
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Symbolism in folklore. |
|
Indians in popular culture.
|
|
Indians in popular culture. |
|
Horror films -- United States -- History and criticism.
|
|
Horror films. |
|
United States -- Folklore -- History.
|
|
Folklore. |
|
United States -- Race relations.
|
|
Race relations. |
|
Monsters. |
| Genre/Form |
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
|
|
History.
|
| ISBN |
9781481308823 (paperback) |
|
1481308823 (paperback) |
|
