Chasing Mythical Beasts

The Reception of Ancient Monsters in Children's and Young Adults' Culture. Edited by Katarzyna Marciniak.

From a multidisciplinary and global perspective, 29 essays show how monsters of Antiquity can enable intergenerational communication, serve as markers for societal transformations, shape human mentality and even act as monstrous companions throughout the different stages of life. - Classical Antiquity is strongly present in youth culture globally. It accompanies children during their initiation into adulthood and thereby deepens their knowledge of the cultural code based on the Greek and Roman heritage. It enables intergenerational communication, with the reception of the Classics being able to serve as a marker of transformations underway in societies the world over. The team of contributors from Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand focuses on the reception of mythical creatures as the key to these transformations, including the changes in human mentality. The volume gathers the results of a stage of the programme 'Our Mythical Childhood', supported by an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Alumni Award for Innovative Networking Initiatives and an ERC Consolidator Grant. Thanks to the multidisciplinary character of its research (Classics, Modern Philologies, Animal Studies) and to the universal importance of the theme of childhood, the volume offers stimulating reading for scholars, students, and educators, as well as for a wider audience. Its 29 contributions somewhat focus on contemporary works and also follow the monsters out of the world of literature into a wide variety of (new) media. The contributions are divided into five sections: I. In the Maze of Youth: Meeting the Minotaur. - II. Eye to Eye with Medusa & Co.: Facing the Female Monsters. - III. Horned and Hoofed: Riding into the Adulthood. - IV. Mythical Creatures across Time and Space: Negotiating the Bestiary. - V. And the Chase Goes On: The Monsters of Visual Culture. - 623 Seiten mit 55 Textabb. sowie 16 Farbtafeln, gebunden (Studies in European Children's and Young Adult Literature; Vol. 8/Universitätsverlag Winter 2020)