This course will examine many Monsters of the 1790s - people, social movements, and cultural phenomena that for various reasons were classified as freakish, hypertrophic, abnormal, excessive or insane. Our cast of literary and historical characters will include madwomen, crossdressers, murderers, scientists, feminists, anatomists, politicians, revolutionaries and robots. We'll be exploring accounts of these figures to understand how they were tied to wider discussions of domestic political economy, apocalyptic theology, and international relations. There s a quality of legend about freaks. Like a person in a fairy tale who stops you and demands that you answer a riddle.
Most people go through life dreading they ll have a traumatic experience.
Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. The Museum of the 1790s . The Lady's Magazine. To which are prefixed, some Observations on Hermaphrodites in general .