Monsters of Modernity: Global Icons for Our Critical Condition by Julian C. H. Lee et al. (review)

Scholars of monstrosity increasingly think in global terms. The unquiet spirits that have emerged out of the material conditions of globalism are examined in a number of new and forthcoming studies, many of which define notions of the "anthropocene" in relation to climate change or think about monsters in the age of austerity, technocracy, and the phantom cunning of neo-liberalism. The multi-authored Monsters of Modernity: Global Icons for our Critical Condition seeks to place a variety of monsters, living in our folklore, histories, and language, and often commodified into popular culture, into just such a framework for discussing the myriad threats to global peace and environmental justice. Across nine chapters, the authors examine many monsters—the ancient Greek Chimera, the biblical Leviathan, Balkan vampires, and the Japanese yokai dragged unceremoniously into the Pokémon Go app—within a functionalist and historical framework, mostly holding to a claim presented early in the book that monsters cannot become "unmoored from the society that created them" (12).

Yet at other moments, the authors cut the lines and let the monsters float into the ether in a singularly unhelpful fashion, leaving the reader baffled by whether we are asked to think with an iconography of monsters or simply seeing them used as a set of evocative metaphors. Chapter 5, for example, dealing with the monster and Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan, occasionally employs some very astute political analysis in relation to both the early modern era and the neo-liberal state, yet although making many important points about the assumed limits of the liberal social contract, the chapter never really clarifies how monstrosity plays a role in the discussion beyond Hobbes's well-known metaphor. References to the biblical Leviathan are an interesting hypertext but also seem ancillary to the author's point, and readers will likely feel a bit cheated that they never get a full rendering of the evocative comment concerning "the logic of modernity" being built "on monstrous metaphor" (80). It's a very powerful claim with no payoff in the argument.

The unevenness of the volume can largely be attributed to Monsters of Modernity functioning as an essay collection, even if it is a book trying to be something else. The authors do aspire to overcome the challenges inherent in a co-authored volume; for example, chapter 2's intriguing "Metalogue" introduces the theoretical struggle at the heart of the book by presenting it via a conversation between 'Peter' and 'Julian,' two of the book's authors) discussing whether monsters are born out of historical conditions or are largely subjective experiences. Most chapters begin with the authors introducing themselves and saying a word about how "thinking with monsters" structures their often wonderfully political and historicized analysis. Some readers might find this distracting or self-indulgent. On the other hand, it is worth noting that the tendency of academic writing to claim an alleged objectivity while also writing in either an authoritative narrative voice or jargon-ridden prose bespeaks its own kind of institutionalized self-indulgence.

Yet Hariz Halilovich's contribution, "Vampires and Ratko Mladić: Balkan Monsters and the Monstering of People" shows the possibilities of such an approach. The chapter provides powerful criticism of popular histories of the Balkans, such as Robert Kaplan's Balkan Ghosts, that reiterate simplistic notions of the region's supposed "ancient hatreds." His analysis shows how folklore, contemporary novels, and political rhetoric present the Balkans itself as monstrous. His brief description of being wounded by Serb nationalists in the April 1992 peace demonstrations elevates the passion and persuasiveness of his already provocative essay.

Unfortunately, there are perils inherent in the elevation of subjectivity in analytical work. These dangers run rampant in perhaps the most idiosyncratic of the contributions...