Vestnik Permskogo universiteta: Rossijskaâ i zarubežnaâ filologiâ (Oct 2017)
MONSTER AS THE OTHER IN MODERN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH
Abstract
The author describes the evolution of the image of a monster in modern English-language literature. Special attention is given to literature of the 20th and 21st centuries, works of British writers such as Angela Karter and Jeanette Winterson, and American writer of Greek origin Jeffrey Eugenides. The central characters of these authors’ novels, in different ways, possess some traits of monstrosity, which becomes a manifestation of their Otherness. Some novels show zoomorphic features (Night at the Circus, Passion), or special physiological characteristics (Middlesex). In each case, a monster realizes its otherness in a certain way and expresses it. In addition to the main character, there are other personages having traits of monstrosity, which provides the complexity and diversity of the problem raised. The methods of the representation of Otherness, the attitude to the Other and different ideas the author expresses through such a character are the subject of this research. The author uses these works as examples demonstrating the evolution of the values associated with the Other in contemporary literature. It is possible to trace evolution of the patterns of the gender Other image from the alien and hostile, being in the area of pathology and madness, to the exclusive, and not the same as others but still deserving recognition and respect. Particular attention is paid to the problem of relations between Otherness and Monstrosity in English and American literature of the 20th and 21st centuries.
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