GOLEM: Journal of Religion and Monsters

Spring 2009, Volume 3: Issue 1

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GOLEM

3:1 (2009)

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FROM THE EDITOR'S KEYBOARD

Visual culture, in representing the anxieties and vulnerabilities of society, tends to exploit and perpetuate critical stereotypes. Media discourse often reflects and addresses the anxieties of difference or the "other" in mainstream culture. These representations frequently depict difference as alien, dangerous, and evil. In this volume of GOLEM, we see how the image of the "monster" functions as a social form of contemporary anxieties over global issues such as immigration and terrorism.

Dana Fore, through the analysis of the Saw movies, shows how these films function as registers of cultural trauma in a post-9/11 world. She illustrates how these films mitigate a profound sense of vulnerability by inviting audience belief and participation in a universe that operates according to ancient laws of sacrifice, where "sacred" violence directed against the "impure" body of a proper scapegoat can restore order and peace to the larger society.

Sara Libby Robinson explores the fears of immigration through Bram Stoker's characterization of Dracula, which exposes Britain's anti-Semitic anxieties during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The article delves into Britain's debates over immigration, racial degeneration, and the feared reverse colonization of Britain. In Stoker's novel, Dracula is symbolically presented as "Jewish," when he enacts blood libels by preying on children and taking blood from Christians. Dracula, as a metonym of stereotypes for Judaism, threatens Britain's racial makeup by mixing his blood with his victims, and transforming some of his victims into vampires. In a larger cultural sense, Dracula serves as a metaphor for the dangers immigrant Jews posed to Britain during this tumultuous period.

Mario DeGiglio-Bellemare continues the examination of the vampire theme by examining Abel Ferrara's theological vampire film, The Addiction, a Catholic meditation on the nature of evil in the world. The author argues that The Addiction is a horror film with a conservative theological agenda. However, using Delueze and Guattari's notion of "lines of flight," he also argues that the film negotiates competing trajectories that subvert its own conservative agenda. This hybrid B-horror film serves as an example of the crossroads, where elite classifications systems are destabilized and new monstrous births are provoked.

Kenneth G. MacKendrick offers a dialectical approach to thinking about monsters in the context of religion and culture. This article is a memoir of the way MacKendrick teaches "Evil in World Religions." The essay chronicles the development and evolution of the course and documents his efforts to do justice to the topic of "evil in world religions" without assuming immediate cross-cultural applicability or relevance. The essay aims to solicit feedback and productive criticism for the development of a third-person approach to the study of practices and attitudes pertaining to good and evil within a variety of religious traditions in a way that is consistent with contemporary developments in both moral philosophy and the study of religion.

Finally, our experimental MONSTER TRACKS section, which showcases short contributions to serve as catalysts for further interpretation, contains an interesting reflection on the life of Rondo Hatton. Jonathan L. Friedmann explores the tragic story of Rondo Hatton, whose physical deformities allowed him to transform into a "monster" on the silver screen while maintaining a sense of self-worth even in the face of insensitivity and exploitation.

In closing, I would like to thank Frances Flannery, Founding Editor, for all her support in continuing the excellent quality of GOLEM contributions and for making it a true catalyst for new approaches to thinking critically about monsters in the context of religion. I also wish to extend my deepest thanks to the editors for their hard work (especially Jonathan Jackson for maintaining the online journal so impeccably), contributors and readers of GOLEM. We greatly welcome your feedback about current issues and your ideas, suggestions and submissions for the next issue in the Fall of 2009. We hope you enjoy these fascinating explorations of monsters and the societies that produce them.

- Rubina Ramji, Cape Breton University, Senior Editor

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GOLEM

Volume 3:1 (2009)

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Mario DeGiglio-Bellemare, John Abbott College
Vampires Reading Feuerbach: Catholic Orthodoxy and Lines of Flight in Abel Ferrara's The Addiction

Abstract: This paper examines Abel Ferrara’s theological vampire film, The Addiction, through the development of what the author calls “crossroads theology” (la théologie du carrefour): the intersection of liberationist and postcolonial hermeneutics. The author argues that The Addiction is a horror film with a conservative theological agenda. However, using Delueze and Guattari’s notion of “lines of flight,” he also argues that the film negotiates competing trajectories that subvert its own conservative agenda. Like many of Ferrara’s films, this hybrid B-horror film is a good example of the crossroads, where elite classifications systems (auteur/artisan, A-list/B-movie, art house/drive-in) are destabilized and new monstrous births are provoked.

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Sara Libby Robinson, Brandeis University
Blood Will Tell: Anti-Semitism and Vampires in British Popular Culture, 1875-1914

Abstract: This article explores the ways in which Bram Stoker’s characterization of Dracula exposes Britain’s anti-Semitic anxieties during the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. The article delves into Britain’s debates over immigration, racial degeneration, and the feared reverse colonization of Britain. In Stoker's novel, Dracula is symbolically presented as “Jewish,” when he enacts blood libels by preying on children and taking blood from Christians. Dracula, as a metonym of stereotypes for Judaism, threatens Britain’s racial makeup by mixing his blood with his victims, and transforming some of his victims into vampires. In a larger cultural sense, Dracula serves as a metaphor for the dangers immigrant Jews posed to Britain during this tumultuous period.

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Dana Fore, University of California, Davis
“Oh yes. There will be blood.”: Sacrificial Power and Disability in Saw and Saw 2

Abstract: Saw and Saw 2 function as registers of cultural trauma in the post-9/11 world. The killer Jigsaw’s obsession with fostering “gratitude” in his victims through sadistic “games” mirrors cultural fears of living in a wartime culture where euphemistic language masks atrocities and individuals become “unreadable” and threatening. However, these films mitigate this profound sense of vulnerability by inviting audience belief and participation in a universe that operates according to ancient laws of sacrifice, where “sacred” violence directed against the “impure” body of a proper scapegoat—in this case, a disabled psychopath—can restore order and peace to the larger society.

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Kenneth G. MacKendrick, University of Manitoba
Evil in World Religions at the University of Manitoba (2002-2008): An Introduction and Provocation

Abstract: This essay is a memoir of the course RLGN 1440 Evil in World Religions that I teach in the Department of Religion, University of Manitoba. The essay chronicles the development and evolution of the course from 2002 – 2008 and documents my efforts to do justice to the topic of "evil in world religions" without assuming immediate cross-cultural applicability or relevance. The basic question is this: What does the study of religion have to offer the study of evil? The essay is programmatic and aims to solicit feedback and productive criticism for the development of a third-person approach to the study of practices and attitudes pertaining to good and evil within a variety of religious traditions in a way that is consistent with contemporary developments in both moral philosophy and the study of religion.

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MONSTER TRACK:

Experimental Section

Jonathan L. Friedmann, Whittier College
B-Movies, Exploitation, and a Real-Life Monster Man

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