TS English
F2015:
Composition
Length:
Format:
Major Paper #2
“Monsters in Contemporary Culture”
5-7 pages, double-spaced
Times New Roman font, 12pt size
1 inch margins on all sides
In our first sequence, we used Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to explore several strategies for
reading “monsters” as particular artifacts of cultural history. Our class investigation covered a
whole variety of strategies for treating the vampire as a product of anxieties and tensions
belonging to early-nineteenth century British society. Fears over emerging technology and the
culture of modernity, justifications for colonialism and racism, anxieties over the family and
“proper” gender roles – all of these different issues come to assume a kind of concrete expression
in the figure of the monster. Our goal in the second half of this class will be to take some of
these same analytics and direct them at the monsters which we encounter in our contemporary
cultural landscape. Monster narratives are, in some ways, more popular than ever, and the forms
that they take are ever more complex. In some ways, representations of monsters in media
culture continue to shape our understandings of evil, abnormality, and unacceptable behavior. In
other cases, the monster has been rewritten to critique our understanding of exclusion, identity,
and other things that we often take for granted as “common sense.” Your project for the last half
of the class is to choose one of these modern monsters and use it to construct a claim about the
values and anxieties of our own contemporary moment.
I.
Choose a monster (broadly defined!): There are only two basic criteria for this
project. Your monster must:
1. Be broadly contemporary (between 1980-present) and
2. Occur in some form of media representation (literature, film, TV, pop
culture, etc)
The sooner you decide upon a particular representation to examine, the more time you
will have to explore your topic and experiment with different arguments about it.
This handout is intended to help you get started choosing your own object of inquiry
and thinking about how you might read it as a cultural artifact of our contemporary
moment. Here are some types of contemporary monsters that would work excellently
for this project.

Recently Imagined Monsters – Our culture invents new monsters all the time. Alien
predators, killer robots from the future, mutated virus creatures – all of these newly
imagined monsters participate in some way within the cultural processes that we have
discussed in class. In addition, there are several more modern categories that, while they
are rarely talked about as “monsters,” fulfill the same kinds of roles that more traditional
monsters have in the past – serial killers, sentient computer viruses, fast zombies, clones,
and cyborgs. What contexts and logics construct these monsters? Why are they
fearsome or threatening and what does that teach us about our contemporary society? If
you choose one of these, you should also be prepared to argue that your choice “counts”
as a monster and can be read as such.
TS English
F2015:
Composition
Major Paper #2
“Monsters in Contemporary Culture”

Old Monsters Remade – Frankenstein, Dracula/the Vampire, the Wolf-man, the Zombie
Horde – all of these “classic” monsters have proven to have an extraordinarily long halflife in our culture. But even as their stories continue to be retold, they are also remade for
a modern audience and adapted to the values of contemporary society. Sometimes these
classic monsters are allowed to appear as sympathetic figures, comedy relief, or even
heroes in newer narratives. Sometimes they are adapted to reference both the historical
period of their origin and the contemporary period, constructing an argument about how
“times have changed.” In any case, if you choose one of these monsters, be prepared to
compare it to its predecessors in order to make a claim about how it “works” in the
present.

Monstrous Rhetorics – We have spent a fair amount of time dealing with cultural
monsters that are fairly easily identifiable as such – grotesque and inhuman figures of
fiction like the vampire. But sometimes we can find some of the same “imaginations”
applied to real life social issues, groups, and events. Another option for you in this
research paper is to take up a cultural artifact or issue that, though it does not include
fictional monsters, allows you to see some of the same dynamics and issues applied to
other contexts. If monster films, sci-fi, and horror aren’t your thing, then you should feel
free to apply our critique to more conventional narratives or representations that make
use of the discourses of abnormality, exclusion, and monstrous “otherness” that we have
studied in class to do their work. What are we afraid of or anxious over in our
contemporary moment and how has the discourse of monstrousness been applied to nonfictional contexts? How does the idea of monsters continue to circulate even in our
“politically correct” era and what are the effects of such a rhetoric? What is supposedly
“monstrous” in our mainstream culture? If you choose this option, you should be
prepared to argue exactly why the idea of the cultural monster applies in this particular
example.

Other – Perhaps you have an idea in mind that does not fall into any of these categories.
If so, you have the option to propose it to me for consideration. Set up an appointment or
come to office hours and I promise to consider your proposal. But keep in mind that I
also reserve the option to reject your proposal.
II.
Research and Analysis: While we will be using class time in the second sequence to
submit your ideas and research to peer review and group critique, this research project
is intended as an independent engagement. You will be working on a specific object
and a topic that is not necessarily shared with your classmates. That said, you should
feel free to come to me with questions or help at any stage. I would be more than
happy to help you to brainstorm potential topics or to advise you in structuring your
research and inquiry!
TS English
F2015:
Composition
Major Paper #2
“Monsters in Contemporary Culture”
To encourage you in this work and to provide you with a place to test your
ideas, I will be placing you into small “project groups”. These groups will meet
once or twice a week to exchange work and to discuss each other’s projects,
providing encouragement, advice, and constructive criticism as the project evolves.
We will discuss these meetings more specifically as they come up, but for now, here
is a brief description of the deadlines that will accompany these meetings.
Artifact/Object Choice: Friday, 11/13
Analysis Paragraphs: Friday, 11/20
Claim Draft: Monday, 11/30
Full Argument Outline: Wednesday, 12/2
Full Draft of Paper: Friday, 12/4
Descriptions of these assignments will be distributed in class as they come up.
III.
Major Paper #2: Of course, the object of all of this work is another 5-7 page paper
in which you make a claim about our contemporary culture through an analysis of the
monsters that it produces. Instead of asking what Frankenstein reveals to us about
the British 19th century, the central question of this prompt is “what does your
monster reveal to us about our contemporary moment?”
The writing goals of this paper are almost identical to the first major paper and
include:
1. A complex and persuasive claim
2. An analysis of your object that operates in the service of your claim
3. 2 academic sources which help you to support your claim and to put it
into conversation with a larger academic discussion (Cohen and
Rosolowski should be counted as potential sources)
You should feel free to use any of the course readings from this sequence if they
apply, but, more than likely, you will need to do some research on your own. In
addition to these standard goals, I will also be evaluating your work according to the
sensitivities to rhetorical situation and textual convention that we have discussed
this quarter.
That’s it! Once again, please feel free to come and see me at any stage of this process. I
know that the challenge of an independent research project can be daunting, so feel free to
make use of me or your TA if you would like guidance.