Teratology

Monsters of Modernity explores the contemporary human condition through a selection of globally iconic monsters. In each chapter, the authors explore monsters for what they reveal about the world in which we live and for the ways that they enable us to address critical issues facing humanity. Although monsters might be feared and thought of as threatening, the authors show how each monster brings us to a deeper appreciation of various aspects of our troubled world, from gender relations, to the lasting impacts of colonisation, to neoliberalism, to the fragility of humanity’s place in the world in the Anthropocene. Monsters of Modernity explores new ground in the conventions of authorship and scholarship, including through the highly personal and subjective perspectives in each chapter, and even the absence of an Introduction. This book will be a valuable companion to anyone interested in the study of monsters as well as those seeking engaging ways to explore and teach key global issues. Open Access text available at: http://kismet.press/portfolio/monsters-of-modernity/

The rabbit is generally the non-rodent species or second species after the rat recommended by the regulatory authorities and is part of the package of regulatory reproductive studies for the detection of potential embryotoxic and/or teratogenic effects of pharmaceuticals, chemicals, food additives, and other compounds, including vaccines (see Chapters 1-7).Its availability, practicality in housing and in mating as well as its large size makes the rabbit the preferred choice as a non-rodent species. The study protocols are essentially similar to those established for the rat (Chapter 9), with some particularities. The study designs are well defined in guidelines and are relatively standardized between testing laboratories across the world.As for the rat, large litter sizes and extensive background data in the rabbit are valuable criteria for an optimal assessment of in utero development of the embryo or fetus and for the detection of potential external or internal fetal malformations.

St Augustine suggested that monsters (monstra) serve to show or to signify (monstrare) something, whilst Foucault argued that one ancestor of today's abnormal individual was the human monster, a class of being characterised by a composite nature. In this essay I examine what two very different mixed human monsters can show us. The donestre, a medieval race of fearsome lion-headed polyglots, exhibit a corporeal violation of natural and social law. The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, meanwhile, illustrates the modern monstrosity of deviant, instinctual character. The careful study of monsters helps to debauch our minds with learning and thus, in the words of William James, to make the natural, explanatory power of 'instinct' seem strange.

The present catalogue text discerns between two kinds of eco-centric works the Austrian artist Herwig Scherabon presented in his latest solo exhibition “Against Nature“ (July 2021, Berlin Neukölln): landscapist and objectivist. Whereas Herwig's landscapist works are both nets-of and knots-in, and thus ontology-wise rather conventional; his objectivist works are ontologically most striking as they exclusively are nets, but no knots. For this reason, they are focused on here. The artist conjures these singular existences by means of black space that is isolating, yet not weakening, but rather empowering, even “monstrouizing“ them. In so existing, they emit an ontologically provocative statement: Distance is not debilitating, but rather an invitation to become.

Dans les années 1830, le jeune zoologiste Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1805-1861) prolonge les travaux de son père, Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, afin de fonder une science des monstres et des anomalies qui n'existe qu'en France: la tératologie. Il s'inspire de la classification zoologique pour hiérarchiser, définir et décrire la plupart des anomalies connues à ce jour. Il utilise les « lois » et la « théorie des arrêts de développement » de son père pour expliquer les causes des anomalies alors que l'embryologie est une science toute récente. Des savants venus de différentes disciplines adhèrent à ses idées et le botaniste Moquin-Tandon est le premier à les transposer aux anomalies végétales. Au cours du XIXe siècle, la tératologie s'adapte aux nouveaux enjeux de la science, comme la question du transformisme, et subit une mise à l'épreuve de la méthode expérimentale par Camille Dareste.

Various examples of teratological literature, that is, literature concerned with monsters and unnatural creatures, are found in the Anglo-Saxon period: two such works were brought together in London, BL, Cotton Vitellius A. xv, which in addition to Beowulf and Judith contains Old English versions of the Letter of Alexander to Aristotle and the Wonders of the East.  Both works are translations from Latin and both have complex and remote origins,  though  the latter,  whose  Latin text (De rebus in Oriente mirabilibus) is preserved  in two  manuscripts  written in England,  might also be an  Insular recasting  of previous  Latin  texts.  It is even more likely that the Liber monstrorum de diversis generibus  had an Anglo-Saxon origin,  even though none of the manuscripts in which the treatise has been transmitted was copied in the British Isles.

La letteratura teratologica delle isole Britanniche conta alcuni esempi già nella fase antica, due dei quali sono riuniti nel ms. London, BL Cotton Vitellius A. xv, che contiene, oltre al Beowulf ed alla Giuditta, la versione in anglosassone della Lettera di Alessandro e quella delle Meraviglie dell'Oriente. 1 Le opere sono entrambe traduzioni dal latino ed hanno un'origine complessa e remota, 2 anche se la seconda, 3 il cui testo latino (De rebus in Oriente mirabilibus) è documentato da due manoscritti redatti in Inghilterra, 4 potrebbe anche 1 Il ms. comprende anche un'omelia su s. Cristoforo. La presenza di due opere teratologiche, di un'omelia dedicata ad un santo dalle dimensioni fuori della norma, nonché del Beowulf, con le sue numerose creature mostruose, e della Giuditta, dove Oloferne viene descritto come un essere dalla sovrumana malvagità, non è casuale vd. K. Sisam, The Compilation of the "Beowulf" Manuscript, in, Studies in the History of Old English Literature. rist. riv. Oxford 1962, pp. 65-97. 2

The figure of the monster in medieval culture functions as a vehicle for a range of intellectual and spiritual inquiries, from questions of language and representation to issues of moral, theological, and cultural value. Monstrosity is bound up with questions of body image and deformity, nature and knowledge, hybridity, and horror. To explore a culture's attitudes to the monstrous is to comprehend one of its most important symbolic tools. (Bettina Bildhauer and Robert Mills, The Monstrous Middle Ages, 2003) While we will be looking at medieval European monsters and monster lore, as well as modern scholarship that grapples with them, it is inevitable (and encouraged) to venture further afield temporally and geographically. Reading assignments include medieval saints' lives, romances, sermons, chronicles, and visual narratives of monsters and heroes in manuscripts and maps. Blended course, synchronous online classes with some asynchronous elements. Learning outcomes By the end of this course you will • be familiar with key theories of monstrosity • apply that knowledge to the interpretation of literary and visual sources • be able to analyze how texts that engage with monstrosity, and reflect cultural values and the boundaries of human identity • break through the alterity of medieval primary sources and discover their cultural relevance through a universal theme • find ways in which studying medieval literature and literary criticism can help you improve your analysis of texts and become a better writer • learn a lot about cool monsters To accommodate asynchronous learning during the pandemic, all seminars are accompanied by detailed Powerpoint presentations, available for the entire duration of the course. Basic netiquette to be observed during Zoom classes. Please honor the classroom space by actively exhibiting respect and compassion for all races, religions, sexual orientations, gender identities, and economic backgrounds. Please be informed that the seminars will be recorded by the Department of Medieval Studies and shared via Panopto where you and all other participants of the course can watch it for one week. After that date, the recording will be deleted. During the recording your image or voice might be recorded, the data processing resulting from the recording is based on CEU's legitimate interest. The Department of Medieval Studies publishes the recording of the lecture with no modifications.

Conrad Gessner’s (1516-1565) discussion of cetaceans and sea-monsters as part of the same distinct group of animals (HA 1558) highlights how in the work of mid-sixteenth century naturalists the taxonomical interacts with cultural, literary, and scholarly tradition. In addition to listing physical characteristics shared by all members of the group, Gessner refers to literary sources which blur the line between whales and monsters, to linguistic causes of such confusion, and to descriptions of cetaceans by various classical, mediaeval, and early modern authors. Alongside anecdotes about real but little-known cetaceans, he presents a range of monster-sightings and draws a connection between classical sirens, aquatic fairies and mermaids. Gessner’s encyclopaedic approach means his discussion is embedded in the scholarly dialogue of the mid-sixteenth century and provides insight in the thoughts of several of his contemporaries on cetaceans, the position of monsters in a taxonomy, and the existence of sea-monsters.

KEYWORDS :
Cetaceans, sea-monsters, monstrous whales, literary tradition, taxonomy, sirens, mermaids, aquatic counterparts of terrestrial creatures, aspidochelone, teratology.

Monsters of Modernity explores the contemporary human condition through a selection of globally iconic monsters. In each chapter, the authors explore monsters for what they reveal about the world in which we live and for the ways that they enable us to address critical issues facing humanity. Although monsters might be feared and thought of as threatening, the authors show how each monster brings us to a deeper appreciation of various aspects of our troubled world, from gender relations, to the lasting impacts of colonisation, to neoliberalism, to the fragility of humanity’s place in the world in the Anthropocene. Monsters of Modernity explores new ground in the conventions of authorship and scholarship, including through the highly personal and subjective perspectives in each chapter, and even the absence of an Introduction. This book will be a valuable companion to anyone interested in the study of monsters as well as those seeking engaging ways to explore and teach key global issues. Open Access text available at: http://kismet.press/portfolio/monsters-of-modernity/

Previously, in Internet of Life, Chp 1 [137], it was shown that if the interaction protocol between parental genome networks is random then there is a loss of bilateral symmetry. Thus, a nonrandom meta-network, interaction protocol evolved as a precondition for the evolution of the first bilaterally symmetric organisms in the Precambrian more than 570 million years ago. In this chapter we investigate some of the consequence of nonran-dom interaction protocols for development and evolution. Computer simulations show that any nonrandom interaction protocol dynamically partitions the organism into two types of nonintersecting sections, one type controlled by the maternal and the other by the paternal haploid genome network. Thus, at any given time, all cells in a given section are exclusively controlled by only one of the two parental haploid genome networks. The partition is dynamic with sections changing identity, splitting or merging as the organism develops. The developmental effects of later partition states are superposed on earlier developmental states leading to complex mixtures of ancestrally inherited phenotypes. Each protocol has an identifying meta-network signature. Different protocol signatures partition the developing organism differently leading to different morphologies and capacities both mental and physical. As protocols and developmental networks diverge new species and phyla can emerge. Protocols are the bedrock of social and sexual intercourse between male and female genomes. For any diploid species their haploid protocols must cooperate to generate a coherent, complete and consistent embryo. If the two haploid protocols of potential sex partners diverge too much, network disfunction causes developmental pathologies, miscarriage or unviability. Evidence for this new theory of development and evolution comes from computational multicellular experiments, human and animal development , malformations, teratology, hybrids and gynandromorphs. Developmental networks and their meta-network protocols provide a fundamentally new explanatory framework for embryonic and post-embryonic development, developmental pathologies, animal and plant hybrids, heterosis, and evolutionary dynamics.

Mémoire présenté par :
Erwan MOREAU
en vue de l'obtention du diplôme de :
MASTER 2 RECHERCHE
Domaine : Sciences humaines et sociales
Mention : Ethnologie-Sociologie
Spécialité : SOCIOLOGIE
Préparé sous la direction de M. Jean Bruno RENARD, professeur de Sociologie
Juin 2014
Mention obtenue : très bien


Abstract (French) :

Le synonyme le plus proche du terme "monstre" est l'expression « contre-nature » (Aristote, Saint Augustin, Canguilhem, Lascault, Cuny Le Callet, Valton, etc.). Sentence paradoxale s'il en est quand on sait qu'au niveau biologique, il est entendu que rien de ce que produit la Nature ne peut voir le jour indépendamment du respect de ses lois et qu'il est le propre de l'imagination de pouvoir y créer des exceptions.

Mais parallèlement à la Nature, objet de la biologie et de la physique, se trouve une autre « nature » : la « connaissance ordinaire » (Aristote employait pour sa part le terme de « cours ordinaire », « ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολύ » en parlant du statut contre-nature du monstre), cette « chose que l'organisme construit dans le but de créer un ordre dans le flux de l'expérience »

Ainsi, tout monstre peut être traduit comme étant ce qui apparaît contraire à une  « connaissance ordinaire », à une réalité sensible, dans son acception la plus large, c'est-à-dire orientée vers l'esthétique (le plus couramment rattaché à une vision anthropocentrée) et/ou vers l'éthique (intolérance idéologique).

Aussi par le partage des affects que met en œuvre une communauté d'esprits (religieuse, laïque, révolutionnaire, impérialiste, etc.), des éléments « contre-nature » peuvent apparaître à un niveau macrosociologique. Éléments émergeant de l'esprit gnostique et de son succédané l'esprit dogmatique, chacun ayant pour spécificité de mettre en exergue le dualisme entre bien et mal, connaissance et ignorance les entraînant ainsi vers l'ère de la déliquescence, de la décadence, en somme vers les temps eschatologiques et leurs abominations monstrueuses.


Abstract (English) :

The best synonym for the word ‘monster’ is the expression ‘unnatural’’ (Aristote, Saint Augustin, Canguilhem, Lascault, Cuny Le Callet, Valton, etc.). That is a paradoxical sentence - if any - when we know that biologically speaking nothing produced by Nature can exist regardless of the respect of its laws. It is among the characteristics of imagination to create exceptions.

But parallel to the Nature as objet of biology and physic is another kind of ‘nature’: the ‘ordinary knowledge’. (Artistote named it the ‘ordinary course’ (ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολύ) to mention the unnatural aspect of monster), this ‘thing that is produced by the organism to create an order within the experience’s flow’.

Then any monster can be understood as what appears in contrary to an ‘ordinary knowledge’, a ‘sensitive reality’ in every sense, that is to say aesthetics- (mostly associated to an anthropocentred vision) and/or ethicspositioned (ideological intolerance).

And the sharing of affections made by a minds’ community (religious, lay, revolutionary or imperialist, etc.) can reveal some ‘unnatural’ elements at the level of macrosociology. Elements that are emerging from the Gnostic spirit and its substitute: the dogmatic spirit. Each specifically brings out the dualism between good and evil, knowledge and ignorance that leads towards the decay, decline age - in other words towards eschatological times and their monstrous abominations.

At the end of the Eighteenth century, anatomists aimed at detaching themselves from a mere classifying and descriptive approach to establish a philosophic science studying form patterns and relationships. Organic forms can either be part of a research program, grounded on how their components coordinate and are related from a functionalist perspective, as Cuvier maintained, or explained by placing them within a pattern, a single framework of organization (unity of composition), as it is for Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. These positions came to a clash in 1830, resulting in what...

Campanella’s reflection about teratology goes through some of the main issues in his thought and more in general the philosophical debate of his time: the controversial about the human generation ex purefatio, the organic and functional distinction man-woman, the theory of imagination, the moral responsibility and the contra natura sin, the possibility of creating artificial life. Especially, and this is the essential point for Campanella, this theme regards the heart of the theological anthropology, questioning the very concept of humanity...

La passione per il Meraviglioso può essere ritenuta un retaggio dell'ignoranza, o al contrario, seguendo Aristotele, il germe della passione per il sapere, l'inizio della filosofia. L'incontro con il Monstrum non è mai una semplice esperienza privata di ordine estetico ma, appartenendo molto più al conoscere che al sentire, può di volta in volta costituire “ un preludio alla contemplazione divina, una imbarazzata ammissione di ignoranza, un viaggio nella paura e nell'ignoto, o una esaltante investigazione“
L'innamoramento del '500 per il Meraviglioso si sostanzierà quindi  in un lunghissimo catalogo per testi e per immagini delle molte “piacevoli e terrificanti maniere in cui la Natura manifesta la mano di Dio nel mondo”

The prophet, alchemist, and physician Anselmo Castelo Branco, while not an unknown name in Portuguese letters, still stands as a largely misunderstood author of the intellectually troubled Portuguese eighteenth century. He is mostly known for his alchemical opus, the Ennoea, and so far scholars have only given superficial attention to his non-alchemical works, leading to significant bias. While not denying Castelo Branco's relevance as a medical and alchemical writer, this article hopes to be the first to offer a detailed reconstruction of this author's biography as well as an extensive analysis of all his known written works. Besides his known contributions to the sciences, his ideas on the Portuguese messianic cult of Sebastianism, prognostication, and the definition of accurate prophecy are analyzed, revealing a complex and nuanced vision which aimed to harmonize the fragmented fields of Portuguese eighteenth-century messianism and millenarianism.

This collection offers cultural historical analyses of enfreakment and freak shows, examining the social construction and spectacular display of wondrous, monstrous, or curious Otherness in the formerly relatively neglected region of Continental Europe. Forgotten stories are uncovered about freak-show celebrities, medical specimen, and philosophical fantasies presenting the anatomically unusual in a wide range of sites, including curiosity cabinets, anatomical museums, and traveling circus acts. The essays explore the locally specific dimensions of the exhibition of extraordinary bodies within their particular historical, cultural and political context. Thus the impact of the Nazi eugenics programs, state Socialism, or the Chernobyl catastrophe is observed closely and yet the transnational dimensions of enfreakment are made obvious through topics ranging from Jesuit missionaries’ diabolization of American Indians, to translations of Continental European teratology in British medical journals, and the Hollywood silver screen’s colonization of European fantasies about deformity. Although Continental European freaks are introduced as products of ideologically-infiltrated representations, they also emerge as embodied subjects endowed with their own voice, view, and subversive agency.

Résumé : Dans cet article nous souhaitons montrer comment la connaissance approfondie que Canguilhem avait de la tératologie expérimentale a contribué à ses analyses des concepts d’anomalie et d’anormalité. Dans la première partie de l’article, après avoir retracé l’intérêt de Canguilhem pour les travaux d’Étienne Wolff grâce à l’analyse des textes préparatoires de sa thèse de 1943, nous clarifions les conceptions canguilhémiennes concernant, d’abord, l’équivalence ontologique a priori de toute forme vivante, et, deuxièmement, la nécessité épistémologique « d’éclairer par la connaissance des formations monstrueuses celle des formations nor- males ». Dans la deuxième partie de l’article, nous nous concentrons sur les contributions spécifiques apportées par les pratiques expérimentales de Wolff aux réflexions canguilhémiennes sur les concepts de totalité d’un organisme vivant et d’irréversibilité des phénomènes vitaux. Nous terminons en observant les conséquences de la « révolution moléculaire » des années 1960 sur la tératologie et en tirant des conclusions plus générales sur la manière dont l’étude des monstres met en lumière certains des aspects méthodologiques propres à l’épistémologie historique.

Summary : In this paper I set out to show how Canguilhem’s firsthand knowledge of innovative experimental teratology affected his ana- lyses of anomaly and abnormality. After retracing Canguilhem’s interest in the work of Étienne Wolff to the preparatory work for his 1943 dissertation, in the first part of the paper I outline Canguilhem’s theses regarding the ontological a priori equivalence of all living forms and the epistemological necessity of « enhancing the knowledge of normal formations by using knowledge about monstrous for- mations ». In the second part of the paper, I focus on Wolff’s specific contributions to Canguilhem’s reflections on the concepts of totality and irreversibility. I conclude by observing the impact of the 1960s « molecular revolution » on teratology and by drawing more general conclusions about how the study of monsters illuminates the methodological underpinnings of historical epistemology.

The aim of this paper is to examine the role of sexually ambiguous human individuals in the Mirabilia by Phlegon of Tralles. The text preserves two curious accounts of the birth of hermaphroditic infants. In antiquity hermaphrodites were usually regarded as maleficent portents which needed a propitiation of the gods; traces of this belief are to be found also in the Mirabilia, since both accounts represent these ‘creatures’ as evil omens. However, in Phlegon’s times hermaphrodites ceased to be considered dangerous and became objects of refined entertainment. I attempt to show that Phlegon, incorporating these particular stories of hermaphrodites into his compilation, plays with the former significance of this phenomenon. First of all, hermaphrodites perfectly fit Phlegon’s collection of marvels, which is focused exclusively on human oddities. But most importantly, he chooses two stories, one of which is strikingly drastic, highly incredible and exceptionally complex in terms of the odd and the bizarre, and the other is reduced to mere quotations from vague and gloomy Sybilline Oracles; in both of them the hermaphrodite is just a part of the sensation and triggers off a sequence of many other extraordinary elements. No longer seen as dangerous, these very special hermaphrodites are used for entertainment purposes providing amusement to the readers by means of shock, astonishment and sensation, along with other ‘freaks of nature’ in the Mirabilia.

The Benedictine monk Benito Jerónimo Feijoo (1676–1764) is now considered one of the major figures of the Spanish and Iberian Enlightenment. However his work, both in Spain and in Portugal, was far from being universally acclaimed. His critical approach to the subject of alchemy in his essay “Piedra Filosofal,” published in the third volume of his magisterial Teatro Crítico Universal (1726–1739), sparked an unexpected response from the Portuguese alchemist Anselmo Castelo Branco, who sought to refute Feijoo’s claims in his own work, the Ennoea. This paper presents an outline of this exchange and its position within Iberian Enlightenment circles. It further argues that Castelo Branco’s defence of alchemy was informed by his political and prophetic views, in particular his adherence to the Portuguese messianic
doctrine of Sebastianism.

This contribution to the contemporary figure of monstrosity looks for a common feature that may characterize and explain what we recognize as monster in the West. The article takes into account the rebel robot that must be destroyed because it threatens humanity: prevailing in the imaginary of popular culture, this story is the resumption of the myth of the Golem, endlessly reproduced in novels and movies, since Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The Golem, intelligent and humanoid creature is monstrous because it lacks a soul, a spiritual and transcendental principle that defines human being...

This paper deals with one aspect of the relationship between man and animal at the time of birth; when man has an increased lack of distinction between the natural and the cultural fact given. The work will examine some knowledge of the margins that concern teratological births, in particular, the symbolic constructions that contemplate that an animal could be born from a woman. Through the analysis of the " state of exception " structure that is generated in these cases and the " living law " that regulates it, we will study the relationship between the law and a body that appears to be difficult to regulate. The purpose is to analyse some aspects of the ritual and the practical dimension that have, at times, made the selection of midwives possible.