Blog Assignment #3

POST DUE: Tueday Oct. 13 by Midnight
COMMENT DUE: Thursday Oct. 15th by Midnight

Hi Everyone,

I named this section of the course “Capitalist Monsters” because it deals with the figures and functions of monstrosity that emerge with the rise of Modernity, specifically with capitalism as a global economic system and colonialism as a globalizing process. By now, the idea that monsters are products of their specific cultural historical contexts should be familiar to you all. We’ve had opportunities to discuss this in more open-ended class discussions, and have looked into ways that the early modern, feudal societies produced monsters in particular ways (witches and werewolves). Last week, we’ve seen in “The Wreck of the Sea-Venture” the ways in which the poor and dispossessed were often characterized as monstrous, especially considering how threatening a mob of disgruntled, underpaid, and overworked people were to those in power. We could, conversely, say that the investors and profit-seekers themselves could be characterized as monstrous for their disregard for human life in pursuit of money. Money corrupts, as the cliché goes.

With this in mind, I’d like you to use this next post to analyze an example of how excessive greed or extreme exploitation (resulting in poverty) might play a role in the creation of a monster. You might think of examples that are cast in the realm of the supernatural (such as the lawyer as actually the devil), or may show fully human people behaving in monstrous ways (criminals, corporate CEOs, politicians, etc.). Does money create monsters? Feel free to write about anything from a fictional text (movie, tv show, novel, comic) to a non-fictional characterization of a historical or contemporary individual.