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11/8/23, 12:57 PM
Topic: Table 6a: Monsters, Misfits and del Toro in depth (posts due FRI and SUN this week)
This is a graded discussion: 10 points possible
due Nov 10
Table 6a: Monsters, Misfits and del Toro in depth (posts due FRI and SUN this
week)
1
By Friday (a little more time this week to take it all in): View the film(s) and read the
instructions for the essay. (https://deanza.instructure.com/courses/32190/assignments/995760)
After reading my lecture notes about monstrosity on the essay instructions, write a one paragraph
freewrite response to get out some of your ideas. Think about how you want to answer the essay
question and get out some of your initial ideas, and once you have that pre-thinking done, review
the writing prompt again and then review what you have written and begin to develop a tentative
thesis. Share your freewriting and your tentative thesis statement by posting it to this week’s
discussion board by Friday so I can give you feedback. rough draft introduction/freewrite for your
essay and underline your tentative thesis statement and post it here to this week’s discussion board.
By Sunday: Respond to at least two classmates’s paragraphs. In your response, you must do three
things: make one observation, share one quote, and ask one question.
An observation may be a reaction you have to the thesis, a thought you have to contribute, a
connection you can make
A quote will come from ANY of the links I have been sharing each week. You will need to peruse the
articles (for the writer and for yourself) and find one you think relates directly to author’s thesis.
Share it with them with a note on how you think they could use it.
A question should invite the writer to think more about their paper. How will you explore . . . What do
you think about . . .
Search entries or author
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11/8/23, 12:57 PM
Topic: Table 6a: Monsters, Misfits and del Toro in depth (posts due FRI and SUN this week)
Intro Draft:
Storytelling that fears and revivals the other is as old as storytelling itself. These are stories
where the other takes the form of a monster, something wicked to be despised on principle,
and this reflects and informs real world actions surrounding real world others. Guillermo del
Toro’s films reject this framing. In his films, the other, the monster, is frequently a person, while
the human, the person, is frequently a monster. His films use the two figures of the person who
is a monster and the monster who is a person to explore and embody the mechanics of bigotry
through a fantastical, yet utterly grounded lens.
Note: as I have not yet written the rest of the essay, it’s quite difficult to write an intro for it. I
don’t know exactly what I’m introducing yet.
Freewrite:
Del Toro’s works often inversely correlate outward and inward monstrosity. This can be seen as
a kind of metaphor for how ‘others’ get stigmatized, to the point that a society sees the ‘other’
as pure evil without recognizing that this view is, itself, monstrous. For example there is
cronos, where the villain stays fully human the whole time, while the hero, a far better person,
becomes transformed to resemble monstrosity. I specifically think of anti-queer bigotry, where
people are able to convince themselves so strongly that the queer is dangerous, that they fail
to recognize the harm they do by holding, professing, and enforcing this view. It’s more broadly
applicable though. Basically, del Toro decouples the image and appearance of monstrosity
from the actual threat of monstrosity. The worst characters in his films are typically fully human,
while many of his most sympathetic characters are monstrous, but still fully PEOPLE.
Sometimes however, the monstrous appearance really does correlate with a monstrous
interior, such as with the pale man in Pan’s Labyrinth. Also, though I have not yet seen it, I
know del Toro’s take on Pinocchio deconstructs the message of the original story, where
humanity is this thing to be aspired to. The happier ending is that Pinocchio gets to be himself,
not that he gets to be turned human. The film rejects the concept that being a ‘real boy’ is
actually something to aspire to. Its easy to read this as allegorical for real world ‘others’
refusing to assimilate in search of acceptance, and for how they shouldn’t need to.
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11/8/23, 12:58 PM
Literary Analysis Paper (various due dates)
Literary Analysis Paper (various due dates)
75 Possible Points
11/22/2023
Attempt 1
In Progress
NEXT UP: Submit Assignment
Add Comment
Unlimited Attempts Allowed
11/6/2023 to 11/26/2023
Details
Literary Analysis Paper: Films by Guillermo del Toro (75 points)
Guillermo del Toro has said about The Shape of Water, “The movie is about otherness . . . We live in
times that are permeated by hate and fear … and I wanted to make the audience little by little fall in
love with the other.”
This is an evolution of the gothic for sure. In most gothic stories, the monster symbolizes our fears
and anxieties, the ugliness of our nature or the suppressed desires within us that society considers
hideous or taboo. The monster is a boundary we dare not cross for fear we will lose ourselves, that
we will turn into something horrible and terrifying, that we will be consumed or changed. It is the
vampirism of Victorian homosexual desire in a society that found that desire deviant. It is female
sexuality in a patriarchal society afraid of feminine power. A hunger for something taboo, something
we suppress but wrestle with and often succumb to only in the darkness and isolation of a foreign
landscape. A place where in the shadows we can transgress societal norms and exorcise our fears.
The monster is that desire society says we must kill if we want to belong.
This has been the traditional reading of the monstrous in literature. In fiction, this flirting with the
monstrous is safe. The events are not happening to us, and while we traverse the gothic landscape in
art, eventually we return to safety. If we sympathize with the monster, our demons are assuaged and
satisfied in a socially acceptable way. If we are terrified of the monster, societal norms and binaries
are reinforced. Good triumphs over evil. Villains are clear and they get punished in the end. If we, too,
feel those monstrous desires, we can indulge them in our fantasies and imaginations, in the dark and
then continue to wear our masks in public.
But wherever your sympathies lie, the gothic imagination is a place where this psychological
transaction can take place. Flirting with monsters. Exploring fears and anxieties around sexuality,
science, foreign invasion, disease, political tyranny. The monster is the other, the outsider, the new or
different that threatens to upend norms. The monster is a technological advancement that may render
us obsolete, that may challenge our spirituality or threaten to upend our belief systems. In the
classical sense of the gothic, monstrosity was associated with evil or negativity.
But here is del Toro saying he uses the monster to bring us closer to loving one another . . . to help us
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re-conceive our notions of otherness, to fall in love with the other rather
than fear or hate them. Isn’t
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Literary Analysis Paper (various due dates)
Guillermo del Toro turns this notion of monstrosity upside down. He says, “To me, monsters are
different from anyone . . . they’re a spiritual cosmology for me. I saw the creature of Frankenstein
when I was a kid and I was transfixed and thought this was a Messiah I can dedicate my life to. They
are a thing of beauty for me. If you see my movies, monstrosity exist in the human heart, not in
appearance.”
I want you to think deeply about the traditional concept of monstrosity outlined here and then about
how del Toro is using that idea, turning it around to challenge our thinking about otherness.
~Essay Topic~
Using Cronos, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water and Pinocchio, write an essay analyzing the gothic
theme of monstrosity and otherness in the filmmaker Guillermo del Toro’s work. How does monstrosity exist
in the human heart and not in appearance? Using at least five sources of scholarship from the chapters and
links I have provided to you so far this quarter, explain the gothic theme of monstrosity and then examine the
ways that theme gets uniquely expressed by del Toro in at least TWO if not all four of his films. In your thesis,
be sure to set yourself apart and make your essay relevant to right now by expressing what you think del
Toro’s films teach us about ourselves and our thoughts/fears/anxieties about otherness and why that
message is especially important today. In other words, try to connect what you’re saying about his
filmmaking in general to what is happening right now this moment in the news or in our culture. How can you
connect del Toro’s thoughts on othering to a particular issue facing our culture–a thought/fear/anxiety about
otherness we are in conflict over today?
Literary devices you can explore: allegory, symbol, motif, theme, gothic, mythology, folklore, fairytale, parable, hero’s
journey
Cinematic devices you can explore: music, color, setting, lighting, aesthetics, costuming, camera angles
*Choose only those devices you feel develop your thesis best. You don’t need to talk about all of them!
~Rubric Criteria for Successful Papers~
Writers will use FIVE or more articles from this module, drawing upon their scholarship and quoting directly
from them in MLA format. Review all the links from weeks 5-7. Pull out relevant/useful quotes. Use them as
evidence to develop and illustrate your ideas.
Writers will use ONE or more sources from module 1 when setting up their argument: Frankenstein or
Dracula
‘A’ papers will directly address all parts of the writing prompt and articulate an interesting, complex idea
rooted in the scholarship.
All passing papers will have a clear central argument expressed in a thesis, and A and B papers will
stick to this argument. C papers might weave in and out of focus. B papers will be well-focused and
Submit as the A paper.
organized, but the thinking might not go as deep or be as innovative/original
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Literary Analysis Paper (various due dates)
‘A” papers will employ skillfully selected textual evidence from all three movies (Pinocchio a 4th bonus),
using it to develop meaningful points in support of the thesis. Their knowledge of the films will be clear and
convincing.
All passing papers will make direct, specific references to scenes in all three movies. A and B papers
will use specific evidence in every paragraph. C papers may be more general or may not discuss the
evidence with much confidence. A C paper might be scant or vague or superficial when discussing the
films.
‘A’ papers will be grounded in scholarship and use the critical reading (see the Canvas pages for each film
for the links to critical reading) to further develop their thesis and supporting points. The quotes they select
from these readings will relate directly to points they are developing, and they will introduce and explain all
quotations in MLA style.
All passing papers will make some use of the critical reading. A and B papers will draw support from at
least three of the critical essays. C papers might just use one.
~MLA Formatting Requirements and Due Dates~
Handwritten outline submitted on time. Upload images of your work.
Typed essay, double spaced, 12 point font and saved as editable file (.doc, .txt, .pages)
1200 – 1500 words
Clever title, centered (do not underline, italicize or put your title in quotation marks or bold)
MLA in-text citations and a Works Cited list
WHAT
WHEN
WHERE
Intro with Tentative Thesis
Friday Week 7
Post to Discussion Board for feedback
Completed Outline
Wednesday Week 8
Upload to assignment link in Canvas
Draft for Peer Review
Friday Week 8
Upload to assignment link in Canvas
Peer Reviews
Sunday Week 8
Offer your feedback on the three
essays you were assigned
Optional office hour visit this week to review your draft
Final Draft
Wednesday Week 9
Upload to assignment link in Canvas
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