Analysis Of Monster Culture By Jeffrey Jerome Cohen

In his writing, “Monster Culture (Seven Theses)”, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen argues that we no longer live in an age that uses Unified Theory, an age when we realized that history is composed of a multitude of fragments. In this writing, he has bound some fragments together to form a “monstrous body” and pushes his readers to reevaluate their cultural assumptions relating to those specific fragments.
In his first thesis, “The Monster’s Body is a Cultural Body” Cohen explains that each monster has a certain culture and follows certain rules. The monsters are typically born within a certain cultural moment. There is a certain time, place, and feeling that is significant to the making of the monster that contributes to their personality. The body …show more content…
If we spot any of these kinds of traits in something or someone, we instinctively portray them as being medieval or/and monstrous because being different matters. Those who aren’t seen as different are the powerful ones and those who are seen as different are the powerless. Our mindset is that they aren’t like us, so they shouldn’t get the same treatment as us. In thesis five, “The Monster Polices the Borders of the Possible”, the idea is that monsters prevent us from moving around too much, they give us certain boundaries that we must follow. They show us what we can and cannot do. If we don’t obey these boundaries, they consider this abnormal. Therefore, if you violate what’s considered the “norm” to them, you face certain consequences like becoming monstrous or even be faced with death. Thesis six, “Fear of the Monster is Really a Kind of Desire”, explains how the monsters get to do what we can’t do. You can’t classify them and since they have these certain privileges over us, we start to distrust them as well as envy them. They have the power to function like an alter ego, or act like us “in group”. We often start to become nervous about