A Kaleidoscope of Mythical Beasts, Beyond Time and Space: Keys to Understanding Oneself and Culture
A Kaleidoscope of Mythical Beasts, Beyond Time and Space: Keys to Understanding Oneself and Culture

Summary/Abstract: The paper aspires to provide a critical presentation of the content of the Chasing Mythical Beasts: The Reception of Ancient Monsters in Children’s and Young Adults’ Culture collective volume, edited by Katarzyna Marciniak (2020), and an interpretative framing for the recurrent emergence of mythical beasts in literature and other media for children and young people. Famous mythical monsters – the Minotaur, Medusa, Pegasus, centaurs, and sirens – reappear either in their original form or in other versions in a wide range of stories, becoming a vehicle for critical reflections over a variety of subjects, like the encounter with the Other, the coming of age, the female power, totalitarianism, ethical dilemmas, or human relationships, to mention some of them. Monsters’ diffusion in almost all cultural fields highlights their universality, recognisability, popularity, and flexibility to adjust to requirements and priorities of all times and spaces. Their inexhaustible potential remains to be further explored.

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