2025 Berea Bridge Program Term

From the monsters on the edges of maps to tales of demons in Purgatory, a host of monsters populated the medieval European imagination. This course explores the portrayal of monsters in a wide range of contexts, including stories written purely for entertainment as well as the use of monstrous rhetoric to justify the persecution of religious minorities and other marginalized groups. Some fiends will feel familiar, such as the werewolves described by Marie de France and Gerald of Wales or the revenants rising zombie-like from their graves to terrorize the Byland Abbey monks. Others, such as the one-footed sciapod reclining in the shade of its single foot or the dog-headed brethren of Saint Christopher, may surprise us. Our investigations will draw from medieval philosophy and theology, law and literature, as well as travel narratives to ultimately ask the question “what makes someone a monster?”