Imaginary Animals: The Monstrous, the Wondrous and the Human - Brossura

Sax, Boria

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1789145457 ISBN 13: 9781789145458

Casa editrice: Reaktion Books, 2022

Riassunto

An extraordinary menagerie of fantastical and unreal beasts featuring hundreds of illustrations, from griffins to dog-men, mermaids, dragons, unicorns, and yetis.

Fire-breathing dragons, beautiful mermaids, majestic unicorns, terrifying three-headed dogs—these fantastic creatures have long excited our imagination. Medieval authors placed them in the borders of manuscripts as markers of the boundaries of our understanding. Tales from around the world place these beasts in deserts, deep woods, remote islands, ocean depths, and alternate universes—just out of our reach. And in the sections on the apocalypse in the Bible, they proliferate as the end of time approaches, with horses with heads like lions, dragons, and serpents signaling the destruction of the world.

 

Legends tell us that imaginary animals belong to a primordial time, before everything in the world had names, categories, and conceptual frameworks. In this book, Boria Sax digs into the stories of these fabulous beasts. He shows how, despite their liminal role, imaginary animals like griffins, dog-men, yetis, and more are socially constructed creatures, created through the same complex play of sensuality and imagination as real ones. Tracing the history of imaginary animals from Paleolithic art to their roles in stories such as Harry Potter and even the advent of robotic pets, he reveals that these extraordinary figures help us psychologically—as monsters, they give form to our amorphous fears, while as creatures of wonder, they embody our hopes. Their greatest service, Sax concludes, is to continually challenge our imaginations, directing us beyond the limitations of conventional beliefs and expectations.

 

Featuring over 230 illustrations of a veritable menagerie of fantastical and unreal beasts, Imaginary Animals is a feast for the eyes and the imagination.

Su questo libro

Informazioni sull?autore

Boria Sax teaches at Sing Sing Prison and online in the graduate literature program at Mercy College. He is the author of many books, including City of Ravens and Dinomania, the latter also published by Reaktion Books.

Dalla quarta di copertina

A beautifully history of imaginary animals from Palaeolithic art to Harry Potter.

Dettagli dell'edizione

• Editore: Reaktion Books
• Data di pubblicazione: 2022
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 1789145457
• ISBN 13: 9781789145458
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 278
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: non disponibile