Signs of the Self
Abstract
The function of the monster as a sign (monstrare, to show) that warns against intellectual surquedry is an intellectual tradition reaching down from the third-century theologian Pseudo-Dionysius. Overly confident images of the self are shattered, often violently, by the monstrous negations that confront them. A discussion of two classic monsters, the doppelganger and the hermaphrodite, attempts to illustrate this by examining their appearance in three literary texts: Dostoyevsky’s The Double, Flannery O’Connor’s Temple of the Holy Ghost, and the Neil Jordan film The Crying Game.
Keywords: monsters; self-image; Pseudo-Dionysius; Dostoyevsky; Flannery O’Connor; Crying Game

Published
May 28, 2014
How to Cite
WILLIAMS, David.
Signs of the Self.
Semiotic Review, [S.l.], n. 2, may 2014.
Available at: <https://www.semioticreview.com/ojs/index.php/sr/article/view/20>. Date accessed: 08 feb. 2023.
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Section
Articles