"My problem as a Classicist is... if monsters are representations of our fears and desires then why are we still interested in Medusa, or the Minotaur, who represent the fears and desires of a very different culture?" - Liz Gloyn
Monsters as a rhizomatic system of symbols, existing "underground" across times and places to emerge when conditions are right.
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Classical monsters tend to be feminine and to exist on the margins because the Classical idea of civilisation is masculine. Maenads as a part of Bacchic festivals are a "domesticated" version of the same principle, making a temporary space outside the city to be free of civilisation.
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(An unspoken theme in this talk is that dangerous female monsters that begin in Classical misogyny get reimagined as sympathetic, domesticated, and eroticised in modern treatments.)
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"We have no shadows any more, so the modern or postmodern monster is the thing you've seen and misidentified." - Liz Gloyn
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