Our Monsters, Ourselves an Analysis of the Modern Monster in the Fall
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Our monsters, Ourselves An analysis of the modern monster in The Fall and Hannibal By Hanne Mørch Jacobsen Master in Literary Studies 2016 FACULTY OF ARTS AND EDUCATION MASTER’S THESIS Programme of study: Spring semester, 2016 MLIMAS – Master in Literacy Studies Open Author: Hanne Mørch Jacobsen ………………………………………… (Author’s signature) Supervisor: Janne Stigen Drangsholt Thesis title: Our monsters, Ourselves – An analysis of the modern monster in The Fall and Hannibal Keywords: No. of pages: 91 Moral monster + appendices/other: 12 Monster theory Fairy tale theory Gender roles Stavanger, May 12, 2016 Otherness Abstract The monster has been a popular figure in Western society for centuries, as a notion that has both fascinated and frightened its members. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the modern, moral monster that exists within contemporary Western society, and how this is presented in two modern texts. The chosen texts for the analysis in the thesis are the TV- series The Fall and Hannibal, which both deals with the notion of the moral monster through the figure of the serial killer. The thesis sets to investigate how we use the literary presentations of the moral monster in order to create structure and maintain boundaries in society. In order to do so, monster theory, fairy tale theory, social theory and gender theory is applied. The investigation presented in this thesis is mainly grounded in the works of Jack Zipes, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen and Marina Warner. It will also include the work of theorists such as Michel Foucault and Kelly Hurley, in order to examine the notion of the moral monster thoroughly. Throughout time, the monster has been used as a symbol of warning in fairy tales and cautionary tales. One of the most popular cautionary tales in Western culture is the story of “Little Red Riding Hood”, which follows the narrative structure of fairy tales and presents a damsel in distress and a big, bad wolf who threatens her safety. This is used as a framework throughout this thesis, which sets to analyse how the two texts The Fall and Hannibal can also function as a modified form of cautionary tale. It also examines whether the serial killers in the TV-series can be seen as a modern kind of ‘wolf’, who lurks in the contemporary society, and how the two texts address the challenges of the gender roles that exist within modern culture. Another aspect this thesis addresses is the notion of ‘otherness’ and how this is presented and defined in contemporary society. Because of its abnormal features, the monster can be seen as the absolute ‘other’, and helps us creating a sense of ‘self’ by presenting a binary opposite to this. Since the monster is created as a result of the anxieties that exist within a culture, it can say something about the aspects one wishes to get rid of and distance oneself from. As a result, the moral monster can also say something about the contemporary Western society, and those who live within it. Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor Janne Stigen Drangsholt. If it had not been for all her ‘thumbs up’, great ideas and constructive guidance, I would have been utterly lost when writing this thesis. I also need to thank ‘Lunsj(snack)klubben’ for all the great food and good laughs (and for sharing my terrible sense of humour). Thanks to the radio show ‘Raae og Osnes’, which has made me seem like a complete idiot in the library due to spontaneous bursts of laughter. To Marit and Øystein, thank you for feeding me with tacos every Friday night! And last, but not least, a huge thanks to Sondre for helping me with the quotes from the series, for encouraging me and giving me moral support on bad days, and for always providing awful jokes. You are the best. Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Main aims and limitations ................................................................................................. 3 Chapter 2: Literary review ...................................................................................................... 6 2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 6 2.2 The moral monster ............................................................................................................. 9 2.3 What is a myth? ............................................................................................................... 11 2.3.1 Myths as cautionary tales .......................................................................................... 12 2.4 The concept of otherness ................................................................................................. 17 2.7 The texts ............................................................................................................................. 21 Chapter 3: Why we all hate women ...................................................................................... 25 3.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 25 3.2 Cautionary tales in contemporary Western culture ......................................................... 29 3.3 All the Little Red Riding Hoods ...................................................................................... 42 3.4 All the hunters and wolves .............................................................................................. 46 3.5 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 53 Chapter 4: To eat or get eaten ............................................................................................... 56 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 56 4.2 The cannibal as a metaphor ............................................................................................. 58 4.2.1 The ‘vampiric capitalism’ ......................................................................................... 64 4.2.2 Cannibalism and the problem of meat ...................................................................... 66 4.5. The issue of knowledge .................................................................................................. 72 4.6 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 87 Chapter 5: Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 89 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 92 Chapter 1: Introduction We live in a time of monsters. (Cohen 1996:xii) Monsters are our children. They can be pushed to the farthest margins of geography and discourse, hidden away at the edges of the world and in the forbidden recesses of our mind, but they always return. (Cohen 1996:20) This thesis is a study of the two contemporary texts The Fall and Hannibal, which are seen to represent the monsters of our time. In this thesis I will focus on what will be referred to as a moral monster. This is a figure who performs monstrous, abnormal actions, and thereby transgresses the rules and borders of society and humanity. This kind of monster cannot be detected visually, but has to be revealed by its monstrous actions. A typical moral monster that hides among us is the serial killer, and this is the main character in the two texts that will be analysed in this thesis. The monster challenges us to discuss and reconsider our society’s rules and values, as well as the actions that characterise ‘normality’. In his text Monster Culture – Seven Theses (1996), Jeffrey Jerome Cohen suggests that the monster is not only a threat towards individual members of society, but also the structures within society upon which we build our identity as human beings (Cohen 1996:12). According to Cohen, we get the monsters we deserve. The monster always seems to appear at a time of crisis, and has an ‘ontological liminality’ that threatens the rules of society (Cohen 1996:6). The Oxford English Dictionaries1 defines the term ontological as ‘referring to the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being’, and explain how liminality, or the liminal refers to something that is ‘occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold’ (Oxford English Dictionaries online, 2016). Cohen claims that because the monster is a being that is ontologically liminal, it can question binary thinking and introduce a crisis (Cohen 1996:6). This shows us that the monster both appears in a moment of crisis and 1 This will henceforth be referred to as the OED 1 creates a crisis within us, since it is placed at the edge of what we can know. It is a figure that challenges us to discuss and reconsider our own rules as well as society itself. Since the monster is a product of its time, monster narratives can say something about our society and ourselves. As a result of this the monster has frequently been, and still is, presented in literature in Western society. Cohen (1996) argues that the monster is ‘an embodiment of a certain cultural moment – of a time, a feeling and a place’ and that the monster’s body ‘incorporates fear,