Monstrosity, Identity and Music: Mediating Uncanny Creatures from Frankenstein to Videogames

Description

Taking Mary Shelley's novel as its point of departure, this collection of essays considers how her creation has not only survived but thrived over 200 years of media history, in music, film, literature, visual art and other cultural forms. In studying monstrous figures torn from the deepest and darkest imaginings of the human psyche, the essays in this book deploy the latest analytical approaches, drawn from such fields as musicology, critical race studies, feminist studies, queer theory and psychoanalysis. The book interweaves the manifold sounds, sights and stories of monstrosity into a conversation that sheds light on important social issues, aesthetic trends and cultural concerns that are as alive today as they were when Shelley's landmark novel was published 200 years ago.

Alexis Luko is Professor of Musicology and the Director of the School of Music at the University of Victoria, Canada. She is the author of Sonatas, Screams, and Silence: Music and Sound in the Films of Ingmar Bergman (2016). James K. Wright is Professor of Music in the School for Studies in Art and Culture and the College of Humanities at Carleton University, Canada. A McGill University Governor General's Gold Medal recipient, his publications include two award-winning books on Arnold Schoenberg, and They Shot, He Scored (2019), a monograph on the life and work of the prolific film composer Eldon Rathburn.

We hate monsters, but we need them, and that's what makes them so endlessly fascinating. For those who take monstrosity seriously, this collection of essays-with topics ranging from Frankenstein's celebrated creature to werewolves and wraiths-offers plenty of food for thought. * James Wierzbicki, author of Film Music: A History *