Of Men and Monsters examines the serial killer as an American cultural icon, one that both attracts and repels. Richard Tithecott suggests that the stories we tell and the images we conjure of serial killers - real and fictional - reveal as much about mainstream culture and its values, desires, and...

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Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Tithecott, Richard (Author)
Format:	Book
Language:	English
Published:	Madison, Wis. Univ. of Wisconsin Press 1997
Subjects:	Dahmer, Jeffrey Dahmer, Jeffrey > 1960-1994 Tueurs en série Serial murderers
Online Access:	Inhaltsverzeichnis
Summary:	Of Men and Monsters examines the serial killer as an American cultural icon, one that both attracts and repels. Richard Tithecott suggests that the stories we tell and the images we conjure of serial killers - real and fictional - reveal as much about mainstream culture and its values, desires, and anxieties as they do about the killers themselves. Why, for example, does Hannibal Lecter, though clearly dangerous, seem brilliant, even alluring, while his dark counterpart in Silence of the Lambs, Buffalo Bill, represents pure monstrosity? In a nation where murders occur every day, why do those we name "serial killers" seem so different, meriting a flood of public and media attention Looking at how Jeffrey Dahmer's story was told - on the Geraldo talk show and CNN specials, in Washington Post editorials and People Weekly pictorials - Tithecott argues that the serial killer we construct for ourselves is a mythical figure in the contemporary world. Transcending boundaries between madness and sanity, civilization and savagery, the idea of the serial killer fulfills dreams of masculinity, purity, and violence
Physical Description:	XIII, 192 S.
ISBN:	029915680X 0299156842 9780299156848