Medieval Muslim-monster imagery persists today through Gothic horror and Orientalism
Evidence
Medieval imagery is displayed in numerous post-medieval forms, even today. Medieval characters, themes, and narratives—the knight, the damsel, and the crusade—are seen in Gothic fiction, late modern architecture and art, science fiction and horror literature, and horror films. The monsters that continue to be popular today are situated in Gothic horror, a genre that resurrects medievalism while also employing Orientalism. At the very least, medievalism continues to have an aesthetic agency that has survived into post-modernity. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 75
Categorization
Category: Connection Points
- XREF: Connects medievalist monster motifs forward to modern horror film geography, linking this book to the reader’s broader media analysis.
- QUESTION: Worth chasing: which specific modern horror films still deploy the medieval Saracen tropes?
Related
- Gothic horror resurrects medievalism fused with Orientalism today (similarity 0.91)
- Gothic horror transmitted medieval Orientalist imagery into modern media (similarity 0.87)
- Modern Muslim monsters rest on medieval fantasies (similarity 0.87)
- Orientalism passed medieval Muslim horrors into modern Gothic fiction (similarity 0.86)
- The dark-skinned Muslim monster persisted from medieval iconography into American imaginations (similarity 0.85)
- Medieval monster imagery persists in modern political discourse about Muslims. (similarity 0.85)
- The Gothic entrapment narrative structured the modern horror film genre. (similarity 0.84)
- Muslim males in Gothic horror are framed as essentially evil, deviant, and child-murdering (similarity 0.84)
- Gothic literature expanded Romantic villainy into full-blown Muslim monsters (similarity 0.84)
- Gothic horror expanded Romantic vilification of Muslims into monstrousness as an anti-Enlightenment reaction. (similarity 0.84)
- Orientalism sustains the credibility of preexisting Muslim monster images (similarity 0.84)
- Medieval Christians mapped monsters onto dark wild and borderland places. (similarity 0.83)
- Gothic Muslim monsters distinguish themselves by crossing borders into Christian Europe (similarity 0.83)
- Gothic literature resurrected medieval geography of Muslim monsters (similarity 0.83)
- Muslim monsters occupied map edges alongside other monstrous races. (similarity 0.83)
Broader Connections
- The dark-skinned Muslim monster persisted from medieval iconography into American imaginations
#expands(0.80) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 161 - Oriental villains shaped the Muslim monsters of Gothic horror
#exemplifies(0.75) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 380 - Fantasy tropes shaped how Orientalism constructed Jewish and Muslim men
#complicates(0.55) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 373