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Amabie goes viral: the monstrous mercreature returns to battle the Gothic Covid‐19

2020; Wiley; Volume: 62; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/criq.12579

1467-8705

Sam George,

Crime, Deviance, and Social Control

Amabie goes viral: the monstrous mercreature returns to battle the Gothic Covid-19 WE LIVE IN A WORLD OF MONSTERSYōkai is an umbrella signifier for things we usually associate with terms such as monster, spirit, goblin, demon, phantom, spectre, shapeshifter, and so on. 1 Originating in local legends in Japan, in folktales and regional ghost stories, yōkai take many forms. 2They are commonly associated with folklore, but they have also long populated literature and visual culture.Toriyama Sekien (1712-88), an eighteenth-century scholar, poet, and artist, produced the illustrated books of yōkai that appeared in Hyakki Yagyō, or monster parade scrolls.This creation of images is profoundly important to the cultural history of yōkai. 3It has meant that the depictions of certain yōkai have become fixed. 4Sekien's compendia of everyday demons was translated into English and published as Japandemonium in 2016, triggering a resurgence of scholarly interest in yōkai and their visual representation.Today yōkai are found in anime, manga, film, video games, and role-playing entertainments. 5This essay will focus on one yōkai, Amabie, a mer-monster from Japan's Edo period (1603-1868), who is being revived to ward off the Covid-19 virus in 2020.I will argue that our understanding of crises is enhanced via the hybrid monsters they engender; here, I focus on the viral spread of the apotropaic image of Amabie via the internet.I also position Amabie as a Gothic artefact, though one which invites a revision of some of the approaches to monstrosity prevalent in Gothic studies.Jeffrey Jerome Cohen's monster theory, developed at the end of the twentieth century, asserts that 'the monster is born at a metaphoric crossroads, as an embodiment of a certain cultural momentof a time, a feeling, and a place'. 6He argues that 'the monster's body is pure culture.A construct and a projection, the monster exists only to be read: the monstrum is etymologically "that which reveals", "that which warns", a glyph that seeks a hierophant.' 7 Cohen's monster theory