Sea Monsters. Theoretical Perspectives

Fictional works that are centered on elements pertaining to the maritime imaginary are established around individual figures as those of the sea monsters. They express terror and instinctive repulsion. By associating the sea monsters with the waves, one can argue that, for instance, the malignant representations of the mermaid – wave is the animation of the sea water, same as the waving of mermaid’s hair represents an animation of her seductive power – evoke seafarers’ phantasmas connected to the image of a fatal woman. Saint Augustin defined the monster as a deviation from the norm. Therefore, monster can be seen as the Other, as the alterity of the human condition. In the medieval period, man was terrified by the immensity of the maritime spaces, and this feeling was reflected in stories about sea monsters, but the development of the maritime field made that terror be transformed in curiosity. In the present essay we’ll focus on the development of the theories related to sea monsters and we’ll argue that these monsters are nothing but ways in which we perceive the world around us and demand us to reassess our cultural assumptions towards differences and force us to tolerate any forms of expression.