Course Banner: English 102 OSC. Dr. Halbert. Summer 2020.

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"MONSTER CULTURE (SEVEN THESES)" DISCUSSION

"Monster Culture (Seven Theses)" by Jeffery Jerome Cohen is, perhaps, the most difficult reading of the semester. It's written by an academic for academics, and I'm assigning it for two reasons. First, it offers a very compelling set of definitions about monsters that are useful theoretical lenses for analyzing monsters in pop culture and social labeling. Second, it poses a genuine challenge to most readers in a first-year composition course, stretching your ability to read difficult texts. The more encounters you have with difficult readings, the more tools you will have in the future to tackle texts that you will need to understand (be it a contract, a legal document, technical writings in your field, and so on).

Given how difficult the reading is, we have a much more formal discussion board response to do in order to build a repository for everyone to use to better understand what is going on. Towards that end, I am assigning each of you ONE thesis to discuss on the discussion board. There are two basic tasks you need to accomplish:

Assigned Theses (by last name):

Questions:

Reminder: do only the questions for your assigned thesis. I have broken down the "threads" in our discussion forum by thesis, so post your response there.

Thesis I: The Monster's Body Is a Cultural Body

Thesis II: The Monster Always Escapes

Thesis III: The Monster Is the Harbinger of Category Crisis

Thesis IV: The Monster Dwells at the Gates of Difference

Thesis V: The Monster Polices the Borders of the Possible

Thesis VI: The Monster Is Really a Kind of Desire