UDC

130.2:314.743

Authors

Ol’ga R. Demidova
Pushkin Leningrad State University; Peterburgskoe shosse 10, St. Petersburg, Pushkin, 196605, Russian Federation; e-mail: ord55@mail.ru

Abstract

This article presents a detailed formal, functional and essential analysis of the concept of monstrosity regarded both diachronically and synchronically. The problem of monstrosity is treated as a juxtaposition of a number of categories: anthropological vs non-anthropological (the concept is oscillating between them), Good vs Evil, beautiful vs ugly (understood differently in different epochs and cultures), norm vs anomaly (the monstrous is striving to cease being an anomaly and turn into a norm that will act as a semiotic basis and cultural reason of monstrosity). The author describes ontological grounds of the concept of monstrosity (fear of the unknown), its cultural genesis, its place and role in culture as well as its nature based on the antagonistic clash between the ethical and the aesthetic, striving to overcome each other, but at the same time to achieve some balance. Further, the article presents an analytical description of the variants of the cultural juxtaposition between the monstrous and the anthropological (overcoming the anthropological nature – the anthropological and the monstrous as a mutual background – the struggle between the anthropomorphous and non-anthropomorphous), the typology of the monstrous, its semantic and pragmatic paradigms. Special attention is paid to the modern understanding of monstrosity that has given rise to the industry of monsters and is based on deconstruction as the major strategy of overcoming both the anthropological (the norm – the beautiful – Good) and the monstrous, with the monster becoming a cultural hero as a result.

Keywords

monstrosity, nature of the monstrous, semantics of monstrosity, clash between the ethical and the aesthetic, problem of norm an anomaly

References

1. Buslovich D.S. Lyudi, geroi, bogi [People, Heroes, Gods]. St. Petersburg, 1992. 367 p.
   
2. Svendsen L.Fr.H. Ondskapens filosofi. Universitetsforlaget, 2004 (Russ. ed.: Svendsen L. Filosofiya zla. Moscow, 2008. 351 p.).
   
3. Lorenz K. Die Rückseite des Spiegels: Versuch einer Naturgeschichte menschlichen Erkennens. Piper, 1973 (Russ. ed.: Lorents K. Oborotnaya storona zerkala. Moscow, 1998. 493 p.).
   
4. Girard R. La violence et le sacré. Paris, 1972 (Russ. ed.: Zhirar R. Nasilie i svyashchennoe. Moscow, 2000. 400 p.).
   
5. Rancière J. Le partage du sensible. La Fabrique, 2000 (Russ. ed.: Rans’er Zh. Razdelyaya chuvstvennoe. St. Petersburg, 2007. 264 p.).
   
6. Demidova O.R. Detskaya literatura kak igra v “strashilki”: seriya “Vozdushnye piraty” [Children’s Literature as a Game of “Bogeyman Stories”: “Air Pirates” Series]. Dolg i lyubov’ [Duty and Love]. Moscow, 2011, pp. 83–93.
   
7. Polotovskaya I.L. Smert’ i samoubiystvo: Rossiya i mir (Istoriko-kul’turologicheskoe razvitie problematiki s drevneyshikh vremen do nashikh dney) [Death and Suicide: Russia and the World (Historical and Cultural Development of the Problem from the Earlies Times to the Present Day)]. St. Petersburg, 2010. 328 p.
   
8. Demidova O.R. Eskhatologiya individual’naya i massovaya: suitsid v kul’ture [On Individual and Mass Eschatology: Suicide in Culture]. Vestnik LGU im. A.S. Pushkina. Ser.: Filosofiya, 2014, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 86–95.