Cover: Monsters, 2nd Edition by Andrew J. Hoffman

Monsters

A Bedford Spotlight ReaderSecond Edition ©2020 Andrew J. Hoffman

Monsters explores questions about the central concept of the monstrous: Why do we create monsters? Are they animal, human, both, or neither? Which of our fears and desires do monsters embody? What can monsters tell us about our cultural and historical moments? How do we cope with the mon...

Read more

Institutional Prices

ISBN:9781319056339

Cover: Monsters, 2nd Edition by Andrew J. Hoffman

A brief and versatile reader at an affordable price

Monsters explores questions about the central concept of the monstrous: Why do we create monsters? Are they animal, human, both, or neither? Which of our fears and desires do monsters embody? What can monsters tell us about our cultural and historical moments? How do we cope with the monsters that haunt our imaginations—and our societies? Readings by classic poets, contemporary fiction writers, pop culture critics, philosophers, psychologists, occultists, veterinarians, ethicists, historians, and others take up these questions and more. Questions and assignments for each selection provide a range of activities for students to write about vampires, werewolves, zombies, mermaids, serial killers, classic horror movie monsters, and more strange things that go bump in the night.

The Bedford Spotlight Reader Series is an exciting line of single-theme readers, each reflecting Bedford’s trademark care and quality. An editorial board of a dozen compositionists at schools with courses focusing on specific themes assists in the development of the series. Each reader collects thoughtfully chosen selections sufficient for an entire writing course—about 35 pieces—to allow instructors to provide carefully developed, high-quality instruction at an affordable price. Bedford Spotlight Readers are designed to help students from all majors make sustained inquiries from multiple perspectives, opening up topics such as borders, food, gender, happiness, humor, language, music,  science and technology, subcultures, and sustainability, to critical analysis. The readers are flexibly arranged in thematic chapters, with each chapter focusing in depth on a different facet of the central topic. Instructor support at macmillanlearning.com includes sample syllabi and additional teaching resources.

Features

Bedford care and quality in every volume.  Each volume in the Bedford Spotlight Series is developed with attention to design, pedagogy, and compelling readings that work in the classroom.


Affordable, and an ideal package option. Each Spotlight Reader offers plenty of material for a composition course while keeping the price low. Package any Spotlight Reader with Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing: A Bedford Spotlight Rhetoric, by Jeff Ousborne, for free, or combine a Spotlight Reader with a Bedford/St. Martins rhetoric or handbook for a significant discount.


Interdisciplinary perspectives on monsters and their effects on individuals and society.  In order to foster student engagement, five chapters, built around central questions on the subject of monsters, offer numerous entry points for inquiry and discussion. A mix of genres as well as accessible and challenging selections from a variety of academic fields, including the humanities, social sciences, and the sciences, allow instructors to tailor their approach to each classroom. For instance,

  • Stephen T. Asma, “Monsters and the Moral Imagination”: A professor of American history relays early accounts of monsters in the Americas, examining the European biases that influenced colonists’ perceptions of what was monstrous.
  • Mary Shelley from Frankenstein: Shelley anticipated the great upheavals that science would bring to her world as she tells of a scientist who stitches together a horrifying creature re-animated by the power of electricity and hubris.
  • Anne E. Schwartz, “Inside a Murdering Mind”: A reporter who covered the trial of Jeffrey Dahmer relates both the dramatic discovery of Dahmer’s crimes and the psychology of this serial killer and cannibal living in Middle America.


Thoughtful support for writers and instructors. A general introduction, chapter introductions, and headnotes provide context, and prompts and assignments offer suggestions for discussion, informal writing, research; ways to connect selections; and assignments for writing.  Alternative tables of contents organized by discipline and theme suggest further ways to teach and make connections among selections.  More support for teaching, including sample syllabi and suggestions for books and media to supplement the reading selections, is offered on macmillanlearning.com.

New to This Edition


New and Diverse Reading Selections
13 of the readings (over a third) are new, and represent a broad and diverse range of genres, themes, and voices.   The number of scholarly works has increased, reflecting the growing academic interest in monster studies. Notable new readings include:

  • Clarisse Loughrey, “Slender Man: A Myth of the Digital Age”: A culture reporter explores how the collective imagination of the digital community has updated mythmaking for the modern age with the creation of Slender Man, a tall, faceless being, born in Photoshop.
  • Carol J. Clover, “Final Girl”: A professor of film studies and language introduces the concept of the “Final Girl” — the lone female survivor at the end of a slasher movie — and explores how the character challenges and embodies stereotypes.
  • Nick Bostrom, “Get Ready for the Dawn of Superintelligence”: A philosopher warns that artificial intelligence is inevitable and could become monstrous if humans do not take steps to ensure that the superintelligent programs remain benevolent.

New Chapter Themes and Topics
New themes and topics offer expanded opportunities for considering the monster:

  • Two new chapter themes include Chapter 3: How Does Gender Affect the Monster? and Chapter 4: What is the Power of the Monster? 
  • New readings throughout the book provide new contexts for considering monsters including: mermaids, artificial intelligence, and monsters from other cultures.


Increased focus on rhetoric and composition

  • “Understanding the Text” reading comprehension questions for every selection have been expanded to include a final prompt that asks students to consider the work’s rhetorical approach to the topic, focusing on language, structure, form, and purpose.
  • A new appendix of “Sentence Guides for Academic Writers” offers a practical module to help students develop an academic writing voice by giving them templates to follow in a variety of composition situations.

“My students are thrilled to discover monsters as a serious field of inquiry!”
-Mary T. Williams, San Jose State University

“I love the variety of disciplines it covers; it allows the material to overlap into other disciplines and is not something students think just ‘ends with English class.’”
-Patricia DiMond, University of South Dakota

“An anthology of readings that focuses on the topic of monsters and on the broader question of why we have monsters and what their function is. The questions that its editor posits and the answers that its selections begin suggesting, are compelling and rigorous, and lead to productive student work.”
-Tim Melnarik, Pasadena City College

Digital Options

Table of Contents

Introduction for Students

Chapter 1: Why Do We Create Monsters? 
Stephen King, Why We Crave Horror Movies
Mary Shelley, from Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus
Susan Tyler Hitchcock, Conception
Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, Why Vampires Never Die 
Chuck Klosterman, My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead
Peter H. Brothers, Japan’s Nuclear Nightmare: How the Bomb Became a Beast Called Godzilla
*Clarisse Loughrey, Slender Man: A Myth of the Digital Age
Stephen T. Asma, Monsters and the Moral Imagination

Chapter 2: How Do Monsters Reflect Their Times?
Ted Genoways, Here Be Monsters
Daniel Cohen, The Birth of Monsters
*Anonymous, from Beowulf [[*new translation]]
*Gerald Vizenor, Nannabozho and the Gambler
Matt Kaplan, Cursed by a Bite
W. Scott Poole, Monstrous Beginnings
*Nick Bostrom, Get Ready for the Dawn of Superintelligence
*Isaac Asimov, Robbie

*Chapter 3: How Does Gender Affect the Monster?
*Amy Fuller, The Evolving Legend of La Llorona
Homer, from The Odyssey
*Sophia Kingshill, Reclaiming the Mermaid
Ovid, Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs
Karen Hollinger, The Monster as Woman: Two Generations of Cat People
*Carol J. Clover, Final Girl
*Judith Halberstam, Bodies that Splatter: Queers and Chainsaws

*Chapter 4: What is the Power of the Monster?
Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Fear of the Monster Is Really a Kind of Desire
Bram Stoker, from Dracula
Karen Backstein, (Un)safe Sex: Romancing the Vampire
Elizabeth A. Lawrence, Werewolves in Psyche and Cinema
*Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
*Erica McCrystal, Hyde as a Monster Villain
*Christian Jarrett, The Lure of Horror

Chapter 5: Is the Monster within Us?
Adolf Hitler, Nation and Race
Patrick McCormick, Why Modern Monsters Have Become Alien to Us
*Thomas Fahy, Hobbes, Human Nature, and the Culture of American Violence in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood
Anne E. Schwartz, Inside a Murdering Mind
Richard Tithecott, The Horror in the Mirror: Average Joe and the Mechanical Monster
William Andrew Myers, Ethical Aliens: The Challenge of Extreme Perpetrators to Humanism
*Kevin Berger, Why We Still Need Monsters

Sentence Guides for Academic Writers

Headshot of Andrew J. Hoffman

Andrew J. Hoffman

Andrew J. Hoffman is a Professor of English at San Diego Mesa College, where he teaches courses in grammar, composition, and British Literature. He received his B.A. in English from the University of California at Irvine and his M.A. from Syracuse University. He is the author of Monsters, part of the Bedford Spotlight series, and has contributed to The Arlington Reader, Fourth Edition. In addition, he has authored, edited, or otherwise contributed to numerous other textbooks of grammar, composition, and rhetoric, in both traditional and online formats.

Program Resources

See a preview of this program’s resources

1. Sign in to unlock your preview.   |   2. Select your desired resources  |   3. Submit a request.  |   4. Download.

Unlock Your Preview.

Program Resources

request locked icon

Additional Materials for Use With Monsters

request locked icon

Sample Syllabus