"Pointless, Ridiculous Monster": Monstrous Abjection and Event in "The House of Asterion" and Grendel

abstract:In this article, I examine reimaginings of myth and legend that subversively address the confrontation between hero and monster by recreating the villainous monster as protagonist. These adaptations disrupt the Self/Other binary, which consequently positions us in a state of empathetic abjection with the monster. Jorge Luis Borges's "The House of Asterion" and John Gardner's Grendel take notions of the monstrous abject in the popular imagination and recreate the myth of the Minotaur and the epic of Beowulf, respectively, from the point of view of the monstrous Other. Borges and Gardner rely on mythic and folkloric profanation to (re)write abject monsters. They intertextually invoke their parent texts and explore the monster's own maternal parentage, which leads to their eventual (and Evental) demise.