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Article: Monsters in the Italian Literary Imagination.(Book Review)
- Article from:
- The Modern Language Review
- Article date:
- April 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Modern Humanities Research Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Monsters in the Italian Literary Imagination. Ed. by KEALA JEWELL. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. 2001. 325 pp. $34.95. ISBN 0-8143-2838-5.
In the introduction the editor presents background to the study of monsters as social organization of knowledge. Starting with the work of French science historian Georges Canguilhem, she presents his distinction of 'monstrous' as belonging to the domain of childish fantasy and myth, and 'monstrosity' as a legitimate subject of scientific enquiry, relevant to natural laws. She explains, 'In this collection, monsters are broadly understood as part of a web of beliefs anchored in the epistemological constructs of ...