Essay On Gerome Cohen's Monster Culture

Where exactly is the line between what is normal and human and what is considered monstrous? In Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s Monster Culture, he explores what it means to be a monster and concludes that a monstrous body is pure culture. He argues that a monster’s purpose is to be read so that the monster can reveal and warn society about something (Cohen 4). Many of his theses focus on the idea of an “us” versus “them” mentality. For instance, he writes that monsters are hybrids who don’t fit in any “systematic structuration” (Cohen 6). Cohen continues to add that monsters “dwell at the gate of difference” in his fourth thesis. Ultimately, that’s his whole argument for what makes up a monster. If a creature or being doesn’t follow societal norms, then they are labeled “other” and cast aside. With this perspective in mind, seeing Geryon’s manifestation of monstrosity in Stesichorus’ Geryoneis and Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red is clear. This paper will explore how, because Geryon is from an unknown place …show more content…
In Cohen’s Monster Culture, he discusses all the ways in which identity categories are explored by means of monsters. In both of these works, it’s important to acknowledge is that the only thing monstrous about Geryon is his physical appearance. If the reader was to take the definition of monstrous in which the focus is on morals, neither Geryon made decisions with the goal of hurting others. Even Stesichorus’ Geryon only wanted to fight to give his children a good name. He didn’t want to be seen as a person who died without a fight. And for Carson’s Geryon, he just wanted to understand the world and himself. It was society that categorize them as “other” just because their outward expression doesn’t follow normal standards. However, when looking at both of their inner qualities, the reader is able to discern that both Geryons have many human emotions, especially regarding their existential