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Of Men and Monsters: Jeffrey Dahmer and the Construction of the Serial Killer
Of Men and Monsters Jeffrey Dahmer and the Construction of the Serial Killer Author:Richard Tithecott Of Men and Monsters explores the serial killer as an American cultural icon, one that both attracts and repels. Richard Tithecott suggests that the stories we tell and the images we conjure of serial killersreal and fictionalreveal as much about mainstream culture and its values, desires, and anxieties as they do about the killers themselve... more »s. Why, for example, does Hannibal Lecter, though clearly dangerous, seem brilliant, even alluring, while his dark counterpart in Silence of the Lambs, Buffalo Bill, represents pure monstrosity? In a nation where murders occur every day, why do those we name serial killers seem so different, meriting a flood of public and media attention? Looking at how Jeffrey Dahmers story was toldon the Geraldo talk show and CNN specials, in Washington Post editorials and People Weekly pictorials, Tithecott argues that the serial killer we construct for ourselves is a mythical figure in the contemporary world. Transcending boundaries between madness and sanity, civilization and savagery, the idea of the serial killer fulfills dreams of masculinity, purity, and violence. In this post-modern reading, Jeffrey Dahmer is not a page in the history of true crime but a Monster who serves many rhetorical and cultural functions.Philip Jenkins, Penn State University, author of Using Murder: The Social Construction of Serial Homicide This is a book, not about what makes the serial killer tick, but about those of usall of uswho have wound the clock and need to keep it running. These inexplicable and motiveless monsters are commonly seen as freaks of nature, never as a social problem. Thus the motiveless serial killer serves not only a patriarchal myth but a brutally misogynistic and homophobic one too.James R. Kincaid, author of Annoying the Victorians, from the Foreword« less