The idea of "monstrosity" has traditionally borne a close relationship to attitudes regarding abnormality and deformity, notions that help observers define for their respective societies the concept of "other." Throughout history observers suggested that the normal and natural was superior to what they deemed imperfect, unusual, or exotic in humankind.

I am particularly interested in English uses of the term "monster" in Tudor and Stuart England. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries constitute a period of upheaval in English history. The country experienced, among other events, the Renaissance, the Reformation, a prolonged war with Spain, rapid inflation, increased poverty and vagrancy, the English Civil War, the Interregnum, the Restoration, and the launch of a vast overseas empire. This period of transition threatened to overturn the established social order and social, political, economic, and cultural elites became anxious. Early modern England was not a country in which conformity could be forced upon the population: there was no police force nor was there a standing army. Those in authority became convinced that innovative methods of eliciting conformity to the government, the church, the patriarchal social system, and even the dominant culture were desperately needed. One such avenue was made available by the popular literature of the day.

My research investigates the development of the conception of monstrosity that appeared in just this type of literature. It also highlights a transformation within the definition of monster that created an innovative and powerful "rhetoric of monstrosity." In 1550, all monsters were, by definition, physically malformed. By 1625, however, a monster was more often a creature (often a human) whose behavior was offensive or unusual. Late Tudor and early Stuart writers vigorously exploited the invective rhetoric of monstrosity to ostracize those who transgressed, whether socially, morally, religiously, or politically. The enemies identified as monsters were various and included many marginal groups, such as heretics, rebels, independent women, drunkards, and sexual deviants.
 

Return to Dr Brammall's Home Page

Go To Truman's Home Page