Monstrum

Currently Playing: The Real Reason You Love Spooky Monster Stories

Thank you to CyberghostVPN for supporting Public Media. You can take advantage of an 84% discount, i.e. $2.03 per month + 4 months free by clicking on this link: https://cyberghostvpn.com/Storied 🗣️ Visit http://to.pbs.org/DonateStoried to support your local PBS stations. What makes a monster? From folklore to horror films, monsters reveal cultural fears, moral lessons, and human desires. Let's talk about what creatures like vampires, werewolves, and Krampus teach us about ourselves—and how monster theory helps us trace the line between humanity and the unknown. For audio descriptions, go to Settings - Audio Track - English Descriptive. ***** PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to: http://to.pbs.org/DonateStoried ***** Written and Hosted by: Dr. Emily Zarka Creative Director: David Schulte Executive Producer: Amanda Fox Executive Producer: Dr. Emily Zarka Producer: Thomas Fernandes Editor/Animator: Steven Simone Illustrator: Samuel Allan Executive in Charge (PBS): Maribel Lopez Director of Programming (PBS): Gabrielle Ewing Additional Footage: Shutterstock Music: APM Music Descriptive Audio & Captions provided by The Described and Captioned Media Program Produced by Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios. Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/monstrumpbs ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bibliography Dunthorne, Anna. “How to Approach a Monster: A Comparison of Different Approaches in the Historiography of Early Modern Monster Literature.” History Compass, vol. 6, no. 4, 2008, pp. 1107–20. Henriksen, Line. In the Company of Ghosts: Hauntology, Ethics, Digital Monsters, Linkopings Universitet, 2016. Hudson, Kathryn M., and John S. Henderson. “A Monstrous Morality: Tzitzimime and Their Relatives as Enforcers of Social Control.” Ethnologia Actualis, vol. 21, no. 1, 2021, pp. 37–57, https://doi.org/10.2478/eas-2021-0020. Kavadlo, Jesse. American Popular Culture in the Era of Terror: Falling Skies, Dark Knights Rising, and Collapsing Cultures. Praeger, 2015. Luckhurst, Roger. “After Monster Theory?: Gareth Edwards’s Monsters.” Science Fiction Film and Television, vol. 13, no. 2, 2020, pp. 269–90. Mittman, Asa Simon, and Marcus Hensel, editors. Classic Readings on Monster Theory : Demonstrare. Volume 1. 1st ed., Arc Humanities Press, 2020. Musharbash, Y., and G. Presterudstuen, editors. Monster Anthropology in Australasia and Beyond. 1st ed. 2014., Palgrave Macmillan US, 2014. Osborn, Jan, et al. “A Theory of Sociality, Morality, and Monsters: Adam Smith and Mary Shelley.” The Adam Smith Review, 1st ed., vol. 1, Routledge, 2023, pp. 312–26. Rochat, Philippe. Moral Acrobatics: How We Avoid Ethical Ambiguity by Thinking in Black and White. Oxford University Press, 2021. Smith, David Livingstone. “Cruelty.” On Inhumanity, Oxford University Press, 2020.