Constructing The Other

MED 24

Constructing The Other explores the idea of otherness and how power plays a role in its existence. Throughout history we have seen the way that the slightest differences between people can allow for discrimination. As a result, a detachment to each other’s humanity is set in place. In moments of fear and ignorance, this detachment is ultimately what allows for violence committed against people who are different.

Through our exploration of the horror genre we have come to see that there is a relationship between these acts of violence and the media created in the genre. In the history of horror, a prominent figure that has always taken center stage is The Other. As the fears and anxieties of the unknown grow, its manifestation is displayed through monsters. The construction of as something to fear, has created a direct link between minorities and horror.

Tutors

Pol Perez

“One could say that the recognition of difference represents a kind of utopia, or, rather, not so much the recognition of difference as difference itself. That the heterogeneous may coexist with the heterogeneous without each destroying the other, that one heterogeneous thing may leave room for the other to unfold as well, and that – we may also add – the heterogeneous may love and be loved, this would be the very dream of a reconciled world.”

Theodor Adorno, Introduction to Dialectics