From cannibal giants to fairy queens, one of the defining characteristics of medieval literature is its monsters. Far from simply being marginal grotesques, representations of monsters and monstrousness were central to the construction of individual and cultural identity in the Middle Ages. This seminar considers representations of monsters in imaginative literature (for example, in various romance texts, the Beowulf-manuscript, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Marie de France) alongside pivotal medieval thinkers on monstrosity and contemporary theorists on alterity, gender, the body, etc.

For those who declared in Fall 2023 or later, this course fulfills the following historical requirement for the English major:
Literatures & Cultures, pre-1500