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Landscapes of Monstrosity
Inter-Disciplinary Press
Publishing Advisory Board
Ana Maria Borlescu

Peter Bray
Ann-Marie Cook
Robert Fisher
Lisa Howard
Peter Mario Kreuter
Stephen Morris
John Parry
Karl Spracklen
Peter Twohig
Inter-Disciplinary Press is a part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net

A Global Network for Dynamic Research and Publishing
2016
Landscapes of Monstrosity
Edited by
László Munteán and Hans Christian Post
Inter-Disciplinary Press
Oxford, United Kingdom
© Inter-Disciplinary Press 2016
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/publishing
The Inter-Disciplinary Press is part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net – a global network

for research and publishing. The Inter-Disciplinary Press aims to promote and
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ISBN: 978-1-84888-370-3
First published in the United Kingdom in eBook format in 2016. First Edition.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Landscapes of Monstrosity vii

Hans Christian Post and László Munteán
Part I Spatial and Corporeal Monstrosities
Psychogeography and Ground Zero 3

Alexander John Bridger
Monstrosity by Monstrous Means: Cambodian Memorial Sites 13

Hans Christian Post
Monsters Take to the Streets! 23

Monstrous Street-Art as Pedagogy of Resistance to
Post-Olympic Regeneration in Hackney Wick?
Rhiannon Firth
Gendered Heterotopias: 39
Creating Space for Menstrual Blood in Contemporary Art
Ruth Green-Cole
Part II Mythical Monsters
Mélusine’s Iconography: 51
Her Legend of Territorial Expansion and Transformation
Zoila Clark
The Dark Side of the Sun: 63

The Great Beast, Monstrosity and Solar Narratives
Cavan McLaughlin
A Plague upon Our Virtual Land 77

Jad Khairallah
Gods and Monsters:

Religious Inquiry and the Monstrous Classroom 87
Joshua Paddison
Introduction: Landscapes of Monstrosity
Hans Christian Post and László Munteán

As the upsurge of terrorism and natural catastrophes over the past year attests, our
world remains home to a wide array of monstrosities. In April 2015 the fourth
Interdisciplinary.Net conference dedicated to the theme of Monstrous Geographies
was held, this time taking place in the Portuguese city of Lisbon. Ravaged by an
earthquake in 1755, which reverberated all over Europe through the writings of
Voltaire and Leibniz, Lisbon was an eerily apt location to discuss such matters, and
participants came from a variety of countries and disciplines, each representing a
different theoretical and methodological approach to investigate manifestations of
monstrosity in geographical settings. The present volume is a snapshot of this
conference.
The monstrous is, in one way or another, a distorted reflection of what we fear
and against which we define ourselves. Monsters have been with us since time
immemorial. They have been present in the earliest creation myths and today
populate all media of fantasy, horror, action and adventure, as well as science fiction.
Over the past years, scholars have attentively studied the prominent presence of
vampires, zombies, and other monsters in films and TV series that breathed new life
into long-forgotten stories and monstrous characters. Simultaneously, the past
decades have witnessed an increase of public and scholarly interest in space and
place, resulting in what is known in academia as the Spatial Turn, leaving its mark
on fields ranging from geography through literature and cultural memory studies.
The resurgence of interest in monsters and the turn towards space as a cultural and
political entity have been a driving force behind the annual conferences organized
around the theme of Monstrous Geographies over the past four years.
The contributors understand the two words of the conference theme in their
broadest possible senses. The monstrous entails the affective registers of fear,
anxiety, trauma, as well as forms of excess and transgression. Likewise, geographies
are both physical and metaphorical, corporeal and psychological, rural and urban,
real and imagined. Apart from offering an insight into the conference, this book bears
witness to the diversity of approaches to studying the intersections of monstrosity
and geography.
The first cluster of chapters explore monstrosity in the realms of space and the
body. Alexander John Bridger’s chapter takes the reader to Ground Zero of the 9/11
attacks in New York in the form of a psychogeographical mapping of trauma and
practices of commemoration. Similarly, the physical site of violence as genius loci
is crucial to Hans Christian Post’s discussion of visual representations of the
Cambodian Genocide of 1975-79 that expose gruesome details of captivity, torture
and death, which he uses as a platform to critically reflect on well-embedded codes
of reverence, observed in commemorations of European genocides. Space emerges
in a different form in Rhiannon Firth’s chapter, where monstrous shapes in graffiti
viii Introduction
__________________________________________________________________
and street art in London give expression to public resentment towards gentrification.
In the first cluster’s final chapter which analyses contemporary art pieces dealing
with and/or employing menstrual blood, Ruth Green-Cole explores how the female
body operates as a site of heterotopia through the tabooization of menstrual blood.
The second cluster of chapters concerns itself with myth, the occult, the virtual,
and concludes with monsters applied to educational purposes. Zoila Clark’s
discussion of the monstrous mermaid-fairy Mélusine, featured in Starbucks’s Logo,
takes the reader onto mythological terrains in order to explore and possibly
reintroduce the critical and disruptive potentials of the figure, while Cavan
McLaughlin’s chapter problematizes the notion of evil in Aleister Crowley’s occult
religion of Thelema. In his discussion of the virtual geography of the image, Jad
Khairallah locates the emotionlessness of the culture of spectatorship as an
‘overwhelming plague’ to contend with. Finally, Joshua Paddison examines the
omnipresence of monsters in popular culture as a rich reservoir of case studies to
investigate interrelations of religion, space, and culture in education.
The landscape that these chapters explore is historical and mythical, physical and
virtual, corporeal and architectural, and textual and visual. They are of the past, as
well as of the present and the future. Featuring a variety of theoretical and
methodological apparatuses, the chapters you are about to read are individual
expeditions into this monstrously fascinating terrain.
Part I
Spatial and Corporeal Monstrosities

Psychogeography and Ground Zero
Alexander John Bridger

Abstract
In this chapter I want to discuss a psychogeographical project conducted at the main
site of the horrific and monstrous September 11th 2001 attacks in New York, U.S.A.
I will explain how I drew on the situationist practice of psychogeographical walking
and why the ideas of detournement, spectacle and psychogeography are important.
In recent years in my research, I have connected and considered this work in relation
to the current memorialization of the Ground Zero site, to current political events
(i.e. the on-going war on ‘terrorism’, the banking crisis, Occupy, and more recently
the Charlie Hebdo events) as well as in relation to the question of how my research
in psychology should connect with political practice and social change.
Key Words: Psychogeography, situationists, psychology, qualitative research,

dérive.
*****
1. Introduction
This chapter builds on a larger study that I conducted for my PhD, which was
completed a few years ago. When I started my PhD, I was planning to draw on
discursive and semiotic methods in order to explore how political rhetoric is
represented in speeches, songs, poems and films. 1 However, when the events of
September 11th 2001 took place, I found watching the events unfold on the screen so
horrific and incomprehensible that I wanted to explore my responses to that event
and attempt to make sense of it all. I therefore decided to shift the focus of my
research to representations of war and terrorism in relation to an analysis of political
speeches and British news reports (newspapers and television) from September 11th
2001 and its aftermath. Whilst I was doing those particular analyses, I visited an
exhibition on Tony Wilson at the Urbis Museum in Manchester, where I came across
a book edited by Christopher Gray titled, Leaving the 21st Century: The Incomplete
Work of the Situationist International. 2 I was quite curious about the book and
wondered why it was exhibited in a glass cabinet, and so sought out a copy from a
bookshop. I started reading the book and instantly became interested in the
situationist ideas of psychogeography, spectacle, detournement and the dérive. Then
on a holiday in Prague, my then partner and I visited the Museum of Communism,
and again I was struck by the idea of historical artefacts being placed in exhibition
cabinets. I spoke about these experiences in relation to the commemoration of history
in exhibition spaces, with my then director of studies, who suggested that I read a
book by Sadie Plant, titled The Most Radical Gesture: The Situationist International
in a Post Modern Age. 3 Whilst reading that book, I became very excited about
4 Psychogeography and Ground Zero
__________________________________________________________________
situationist theory and psychogeography and began to consider how I might draw on
such ideas in my research and in relation to my everyday life. So this is the context
of the research ideas that will be presented in this chapter. Context is important to
the work I do as a ‘critical psychologist’, as we argue that all knowledge is always
situated in time and place.
As outlined earlier in this chapter, in 2001 I had originally intended to analyse
how political rhetoric is represented in different formats such as songs, films and
poetry. However, that idea was quite broad and I wanted to focus down the area to a
specific topic and theme. At that point during my PhD research, I was quite interested
in representations of history in relation to how historical events are represented in
the ‘indoor’ areas of cities such as museums and art spaces as well as how they are
represented in outdoors areas such as business districts, shopping areas and
residential neighbourhoods. When the events of September 11th 2001 took place, I
decided to focus my research on that particular event, as it was reported as a day that
changed the world and also said to herald the new spectre of global Islamic terrorism.
I decided to focus on the World Trade Centre attacks as they seemed the most
significant and catastrophic of all the attacks on that day and were the most reported
by the news media across the world. Following the attacks on the World Trade
Centre and for a few years afterwards, the site lay bare and no rebuilding was taking
place. Only in recent years has a proper exhibition and memorial site named
Reflecting Absence been constructed. However, the bare site in itself drew me to
investigate that space and consider the extent to which I could draw on a
psychogeographical research approach. In my prior work I had drawn on discursive
and semiological analyses to deconstruct and decode word and image
representations of September 11th and its aftermath. And whilst those approaches
were most useful to deconstruct and consider such representations, they did not
really provide much in terms of methods or techniques to analyse the physical space
of Ground Zero. What I foremost wanted to do in this study was to conceptualise a
psychogeographical walking methodological approach in an attempt to make sense
of Ground Zero. By ‘making sense’ I refer to a self-reflective qualitative
psychological approach, which among other things involves considering the
meanings produced in the process about physical places and the extent to which they
may complement or contradict the dominant accounts provided by the mainstream
media, politicians etc. The psychogeographical approach is employed in an attempt
to see things ‘anew’ and with ‘fresh eyes’.
2. Methods and Strategies

As a first step in the process, I considered the pre-existing research from
experimental social psychology and environmental psychology, but neither of those
areas of work seemed to fit with the proposed aims of the research. Rather than
studying spatial cognition, measuring the casual relations of attitudes to behaviours
and assuming to be able to know what goes on in peoples’ heads, I wanted to
Alexander John Bridger 5
__________________________________________________________________
conceptualise how to use the situationist practice of psychogeography to reflectively
interpret the site of Ground Zero. Thus I turned to work from critical psychology,
including work by Burnett et al, 4 Grup de Lesbianes Feministes 5 and Precarias a la
Deriva, 6 the work of Pinder 7 in geography and Joyce’ 8 and Sadler’s 9 respective work
in political theory and cultural studies.
In my work, I consider it important to analyse social spaces as political spaces.
One of the limits I have found with much of previous environmental, social and
cognitive analysis of environments is the lack of focus in it on spaces as political
entities. What I wanted to do was to draw on psychogeographical walking as a
practice in order to physically map out the traces of neoliberalism in particular
spaces. I draw on the work of the situationists rather than other approaches to
studying environments because that approach is closest to my political standpoint,
which is both situationist and democrat. The terms ‘psychogeographical’ or
‘psychogeography’ refer to the interface of psychology with geography in the loosest
possible manner. One could say that psychogeography is about opening ourselves
up to the experiences of spaces, places and other people, and to explore the effects
of environments on ourselves and vice versa. This practice is done in order to begin
to imagine what environments could look like if they were not completely based on
values of capitalism and consumerism.
The physical aspect to walking in and through environments brings mind and
body to consider environments in a joint effort. Walking is therefore arguably akin
to a mode of thinking through our relations to the physical fabric of our everyday
terrains. The Situationists actually carried out a range of walks in Paris in the late
1950s and early 1960s where they explored themes such as gentrification, the city as
spectacle and modernization. 10 The term spectacle is a really important to consider
here. It refers to a term conceptualised by Guy Debord, a leading member of the
Situationists, to indicate how society is represented as a spectacle and its subjects
are positioned as passive spectators who are seemingly duped by the spectacle.
Examples of the spectacle can include the cult of celebrity in reality television shows
and the spectacular imagery of war reporting. The implications of the spectacle as
an ideological system is that it can lead to people unquestioningly accepting the order
of things. If one applies the notion of spectacle to the Ground Zero of the early 2000s,
before the site was rebuilt, it could be argued that it represented an important site of
reflection as to what to do next, how to respond to the attacks and whether there are
necessary alternatives to the capitalist order of things.
This then leads us into the next important theoretical resource, which is
detournement. Detournement broadly speaking refers to a practice of taking the
original meaning of things and affixing new meanings onto those things. The reason
for doing this would be to question the original meanings of things and suggest and
point to alternative ways of reading them. An example could be that one would
subvert the meaning of a clothing advert by deleting the wording and pasting on new
wording to create a new suggested understanding of the advertisement. It makes
__________________________________________________________________
sense in this work to consider the concept of detournement in relation to the practice
of psychogeographical walking where the environments are read as texts and our
bodies serve as media of analysis. Rather than walking in order to travel from a to b,
one walks to explore and see spaces with new eyes in order to begin to consider what
non-capitalist environments could look like. With psychogeographical walking, one
subverts and disrupts the ordinary, normalized ways in which we move through
spaces and places from a to b. We may for example do what various situationists did
and use a map of another city or put directional markers on a dice and use that to
navigate a route while we wander through our hometowns. Such strategies would be
used to take a detour, to subvert and disrupt the usual ways in which we would go
from a to b with a view to open ourselves up to and challenge how we usually
experience what we consider to be the ‘everyday’. Spontaneity is key and such
methods may also enable random encounters with new people and places. Debord
provides the following definition of the dérive:
Dérives involve playful-constructive behaviour and awareness of

psychogeographical effects, and are thus quite different from the
classic notions of journey or stroll. In a dérive, one or more
persons during a certain period drop their relations, their work and
leisure activities and all other motives for movement and action,
and let themselves be drawn by all the attractions of the terrain and
the encounters they find there. Chance is less an important factor
in this activity than one might think: from a dérive point of view,
cities have psychogeographical contours, with constant currents,
fixed points and vortexes that strongly encourage and discourage
entry into or exit from certain zones. 11
Debord even indicated that one could not criticize the spectacle without at the same
time being part of the criticized system. The points in the above quote also raise the
question whether it is actually possible to do dérives successfully in various
environments. This question, however, is somewhat similar to the question whether
free association as a psychoanalytic concept is in fact ‘free’. We are indeed
determined and constrained to some extent by our everyday contexts, but we still
have some level of free will to be able to change things for ourselves and others.
Having discussed these core theoretical concepts brings me to consider how one
would go about conducting psychogeographical walks. Indeed, there are many
individuals and groups that have drawn on the work of the Situationists, including
Rhiannon Firth (also in this volume), Morag Rose, Tina Richardson, Phil Smith, and
various groups such as the London Psychogeographical Association, the Loiterers
Resistance Movement, Leeds Psychogeography Group and the Huddersfield
Psychogeographical Network.
__________________________________________________________________
Debord has written that dérives are best conducted in groups of two or more
people as this will allow those involved to cross check their interpretations with each
other. 12 I therefore decided to conduct the planned walk at Ground Zero with my
brother who was also interested in the practice of psychogeographical drifting.
However, contrary to the idea of the dérive as wandering without intention or plan,
our visit to Ground Zero required some planning, as the location was quite some
distance from where we lived and I needed to ensure that I would be able to produce
some data to write about.
Debord writes that psychogeographical drifts can either be site-specific studies
of particular places or can be completely random walks. 13 The first task was to
purchase a Lonely Planet Guide to America and also a Rough Guide map of New
York. The question of how to do the psychogeographical walks and how to
document such activities required some thought. I found Khatib’s account of a
psychogeographical drift around the Les Halles district in Paris to be a very useful
account of psychogeographical work to draw on. 14 I also came across numerous
psychogeographical accounts in forums such as the online Manchester Area
Psychogeographic and London Psychogeographic websites. In addition, there were
a few critical academic psychology accounts of psychogeographical drifts, which I
found useful to consult, as well as other critical activist and psychological accounts
as indicated previously in this chapter. 15 I had intended that after the drift I would
write a reflective story of our walk, interspersed with photographs and artistic maps.
What follows next is an account of our psychogeographical walks.
3. Psychogeographical Walking at Ground Zero

First of all, this account is an abridged version of the analysis. Those interested
may wish to consult Bridger’s PhD (2009) as well as another paper on this topic by
the author. 16 The following analysis highlights some of the main aspects and themes
of the walks carried out at Ground Zero.
In order to maintain some of the effects of disorientation, which appeared to be
conducive to psychogeographical walking, we decided to commence the work at
Ground Zero shortly after arriving to New York from our original destination in the
U.K. Our aim was to attempt to do a psychogeographical walk at Ground Zero and
to explore what it meant for us to be at the site of Ground Zero. We decided to trace
our route around Ground Zero by using a Bangkok map, which also had a World
Trade Center building on it. This practice is indebted to a practice that the
Situationists conducted where they used maps of other cities while walking in places
such as Paris and London. The point of such work was to map out the changing form
of urban environments and to begin to consider what needs to change in society.
When we arrived at the site, we both felt a sense of shock and horror. On
commencing our first walk at the site, the words of Judith Butler came to mind in
relation to her reflections on the September 11th attacks,
__________________________________________________________________
To be injured means that one has the chance to reflect upon injury,
to find out the mechanisms of its distribution, to find out who else
suffers from permeable borders, unexpected violence,
dispossession, and fear, and in what ways. 17
I thought about my own sadness at the loss of lives at that site and across the
world in various recent terrorist attacks, wars and conflicts. I also thought back to
where I had been when the attacks happened. I remembered that my brother and I
had been at home, the phone had rung, my brother had picked it up and one of his
friends had told him to put the television on and watch the news. My brother had put
the television on and we both had stared at the screen and were speechless to see a
news loop of a plane crashing into the World Trade Centre.
In relation to the walks that we conducted over the period of a few days, it proved
rather difficult to wander around Ground Zero, as the whole area was restricted
access, which meant that we could only walk a square route around the site. A
footpath had been laid out for visitors on the site’s outer perimeters and there was
quite a high level of security. Although we had a constant feeling that it was
somewhat inappropriate to take photographs and we kept thinking that the security
personnel may ask us what we were doing, no one seemed to mind us photographing
the site. Apparently the security personnel considered us to be tourists. Indeed there
can be a fine line between tourism and psychogeography. 18 The key difference here
being that tourism is configured as touristic practice tied with consumption whereas
psychogeography is configured as a means to criticize the spatial ordering of places,
systems and our positioning in capitalist society.
We attempted to follow Khatib’s cue of exploring the spaces we felt drawn
towards as a means to open ourselves up to how we felt about being at Ground Zero.
One should add here that such a practice is arguably closely tied to a psychoanalytic
mode of free association whereby one attempts to act and think spontaneously to free
up and create new chains of association of meanings in relation to understanding
one’s everyday experiences. Psychogeographical work can also be considered in
some respects to ethnographical work in terms of qualitative observational methods,
though arguably here the aims are rather more political in order to consider the
political order of things and to use the research practice as part of a process of
meaning making and for considering the question of social change.
4. Conclusions
The purpose of the Ground Zero walk for me was three-fold. The first purpose
was to conceptualise what a psychogeographical psychological qualitative method
could look like, the second purpose to consider the ordering of space at Ground Zero,
and the third purpose to consider the bigger question of whether there could be
alternatives to the capitalist order of things.
__________________________________________________________________
In relation to the first purpose, since the production of my PhD thesis, which set
out to conceptualise a psychogeographical psychological methodology, I have gone
on to write several papers which outline my approach to studying urban spaces. This
particular chapter forms part of that mapping out of a psychogeographical
psychological approach, but since it is rather brief, those readers who wish to learn
more about my research could consult other writings of mine. Some readers may
find that the psychogeographical psychological approach is similar to other
qualitative methods such as ethnography and observational methods, and indeed it
is, though embedding this approach with a situationist political underpinning means
that the type of analytical claims produced from such work would be different in
focus.
As for the second purpose, I do not claim to be able to produce ‘findings’ from
research, as the aims of qualitative critical psychological work are not to assume to
be able to find meanings hidden in environments or in peoples’ heads. However, it
is possible to draw some conclusions about particular themes constructed in the
process of research in relation to my role as a researcher here. The two main themes
running through the process of the psychogeographical walk centred on surveillance
and power at Ground Zero. Surveillance was a main theme in terms of the high level
security at the site, which we observed during the psychogeographical power. Power
was a main theme in relation to where we were allowed and not allowed to walk.
In relation to the third purpose, this relates to the extent to which research can
enable social change. In essence, psychogeographical walking will not change the
world, but it can shift and shape the ways that we make sense of our everyday
environments, and to do such work in groups can create useful and constructive
dialogue. No one person should be able to say what should change in society as that
is a decision that should be made collectively by people. Hayes has argued that
psychogeographical research serves as a way to further politicise qualitative and
critical psychological research. 19 That argument could connect with what Pinder
indicates in terms of a need to change the ‘social organisation of place’ as well as
changing society. 20 Hence I argue here that psychogeographical methods can serve
as a useful strategy to physically consider our everyday environments and enter into
dialogue with others as to what built environments we really want as opposed to
simply accepting the current consumerist and capitalist formation of towns and
cities.
Notes
1
Alexander John Bridger, ‘September 11th 2001 and the Aftermath: Extending
Qualitative Methods in Psychology’ (Unpublished PhD Thesis, Manchester
Metropolitan University, 2009).
2
Christopher Gray, Leaving the 20th Century: The Incomplete Work of the
Situationist International (London: Rebel Press, 1998).
__________________________________________________________________
3
Sadie Plant, The Most Radical Gesture: The Situationist International in a Post-
Modern Age (London: Routledge, 1992).
4
Judith Burnett, Erika Cudworth and Maria Tamboukou, ‘Women on Dérive:
Autobiographical Explorations of Lived Spaces’, Geography and Gender
Reconsidered (London: Women and Geography Study Group and Institute of British
Geographers, 2004, CD).
5
Grup de Lesbianes Feministes, ‘Exploring New Ways of Insubmission in Social
Representation’, Annual Review of Critical Psychology 1.4 (2005): 107-114.
6
Precarias a la Deriva, ‘Housewives, Maids, Cleaning Ladies and Caregivers in
General: Care in the Communication Continuum’, Annual Review of Critical
Psychology 1.4 (2005): 188-198.
7
David Pinder, Visions of the City: Utopianism, Power and Politics in Twentieth
Century Urbanism (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005).
8
Patrick Joyce, The Rule of Freedom: Liberalism and the Modern City (London:
Verso, 2003).
9
, Simon Sadler, The Situationist City (London: MIT Press, 1998).
10
Ibid.
11
Guy Debord, ‘Theory of the Dérive’, Situationist International, viewed 26
November 2014, http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/theory.html.
12
Ibid.
13
Ibid.
14
Abdelhafid Khatib, ‘Attempt at a Psychogeographical Description of Les Halles’,
Situationist International Anthology, viewed 26 November 2014,
http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/leshalles.html.
15
Burnett, Cudworth and Tamboukou, ‘Women on Dérive’.
16
Alexander John Bridger, ‘Psychogeography and the Study of Social
Environments: Extending Visual Methodological Research in Psychology’, Visual
Methods in Psychology: Using and Interpreting Images in Qualitative Research, ed.
Paula Reavey (Hove: Psychology Press, 2011), 284-295.
17
Judith Butler, Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence (London:
Verso, 2004), xii.
18
Phil Smith, Counter-Tourism: The Handbook (Devon: Triarchy Press, 2012).
19
Graham Hayes, ‘Walking the Streets: Psychology and the Flâneur’, Annual Review
of Critical Psychology 1.3 (2003): 50-66.
20
David Pinder, ‘Subverting Cartography: The Situationists and Maps of the City’,
Environment and Planning A 28 (1996): 405-427.
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__________________________________________________________________
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Autobiographical Explorations of Lived Spaces’. Geography and Gender
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Verso, 2004.
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November 2014. http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/theory.html.
‘Definitions’. Situationist International. Bureau of Public Secrets. Viewed 16

January 2015. http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/1.definitions.htm.
Ellis, Carolyn and Arthur Bochner. ‘Autoethnography, Personal Narrative,

Reflexivity: Researcher as Subject’. The Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited
by Norman Denzin and Yvonna Lincoln, 733-768. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2000.
Gray, Christopher. Leaving the 20th Century: The Incomplete Work of the
Situationist International. London: Rebel Press, 1998.
Grup de Lesbianes Feministes. ‘Exploring New Ways of Insubmission in Social

Representation’. Annual Review of Critical Psychology 1.4 (2005): 107-114.
Hollway, Wendy. Subjectivity and Method in Psychology: Gender, Meaning and

Science. London: Sage, 1989.
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Verso, 2003.
Khatib, Abdelhafid. ‘Attempt at a Psychogeographical Description of Les Halles’.

Situationist International Anthology. Viewed 26 November 2014.
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__________________________________________________________________
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Spectacle’. Antipode 32.4 (2000): 357-286.
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Alexander John Bridger is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of

Huddersfield, teaching in areas including critical psychology, qualitative research
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is currently writing a book titled Psychology and Psychogeography.
Monstrosity by Monstrous Means: Cambodian Memorial Sites
Hans Christian Post

Abstract
The Cambodian memorials to the Cambodian genocide between 1975 and 1979 can
in numerous ways be termed monstrous. Not so much in that they deal with atrocities
monstrous in scale and character, as in the monstrous visual means they employ and
the imprecise, monster-ridden explanations they deliver. In this they stand in contrast
to Holocaust memorial sites particularly in Europe, Israel and the US, where
curatorial, representational and aesthetic experiments based on an ethos of not
depicting the horror and not delivering simple explanations have for decades
prevailed; an ethos formulated out of respect for victims and survivors and/or due to
a consciousness that the Holocaust represents an event, which in its causes and
effects can be neither fully grasped and represented nor isolated in time and space.
In Cambodia the rationale on the contrary seems to be to show as much of the horror
as possible with no or only little consideration of victims, survivors and visitors, and
deliver the starkest, most conclusive explanations possible. Initially, this renders
memorial sites in Cambodia highly problematic and unethical. But, as this chapter
argues, the sites and their exhibits should be valued for the general truths they hold
and, more importantly, for the potentials for change they carry. By their monstrous
means and violation of the so called Holocaust Bilderverbot-tradition, which has for
decades served as ethical guideline in much artistic and curatorial work concerning
events of genocide, they highlight dilemmas that all genocide memorial sites and
practices ultimately entail, thereby raising anew the question, if there are certain
standards and limits worth meeting and focuses worth keeping, when memorial sites
are created. The Cambodian memorial sites deliver forceful answers to these
questions.
Key Words: Cambodian genocide, Khmer Rouge, genocide memory, memory

culture, memory politics, S-21, Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, mug shots, Choeung
Ek Killing Fields, dark tourism, genocide consumption.
*****
1. Introduction
In 2007 the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-CAM) concluded a
comprehensive mapping project, which, among other things, revealed 81 memorials
to the Cambodian genocide. 1 Since then more such sites have been identified. In
2013 DC-CAM estimated that 126 memorials exist, often erected at Buddhist
temples by survivors of the genocide. In Cambodia markers of genocide, and of
commemoration are in other words abundant. This could indicate that memory is
alive and that the murderous past has its well-assigned place in local memories and
14 Monstrosity by Monstrous Means
__________________________________________________________________
geographies. But this is not so. Memory is alive in the sense that sites and practices
are currently undergoing change. But, although some of these are pointing forward
and could prove quite fundamental, the changes have not solely been for the better.
Still, due to DC-CAM’s broad outreach programs during the recent Khmer Rouge
tribunals, Cambodia today stands at a crossroad, where it can move towards more
inclusive, humane memorial sites and practices, or stick to the monolithic,
instrumental ones so far preferred.
For, until now, Cambodia’s memorial sites and practices have been marked by
monstrosity. This is especially evident when seen in relation to Holocaust memorials
in, for instance, Germany, where curatorial and artistic experiments based on an
ethos of not depicting the horror and not accepting simple explanations have long
prevailed. In Cambodia the ethos has been the opposite: to show as much horror as
possible and deliver the starkest and simplest explanations possible. This lends
Cambodian memorials an insensitive, imbalanced, unresolved, propagandistic
expression, and this to such an extent that they can be said to reproduce the injustices
of the Khmer Rouge-era and more generally hinder memory and efforts of working
through in the population.
Fortunately, however, the picture is not so clear-cut. Cambodian memorials hold
a number of valuable qualities. Interestingly, the main virtue lies in their
unresolvedness. Many sites, especially the national ones, can be viewed as early
outbursts of horror, anguish and anger or as loud, response-seeking outcries that are
at the same time strikingly silent. Judging from recent developments this odd
combination of loudness and silence is now triggering attempts to counter both and
reset the focus so that commemoration will in the future be more for and by the
Cambodians. Should this trend continue, the remaining question is, if the current
leadership will allow for memory, with all social aspirations that might follow, to
take a more rightful place in Cambodian society.
In the following, memorial monstrosity in Cambodia will be discussed on the
basis of the two most important sites, Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and Choeung
Ek Killing Fields. The chapter will shortly describe the genocide itself and give an
outline of the early political context of the memorials. This will lead to the discussion
and evaluation of the mug shot exhibition at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum
followed by a brief discussion of Choeung Ek Killing Fields.
2. The Cambodian Genocide

The Cambodian genocide took place during the Khmer Rouge-period between
April 1975 and early January 1979. The killings started on the very first day of the
Khmer Rouge taking power and launching its plan to create a purified, self-sufficient
society. 2 All cities were immediately evacuated, with many families separated in the
process, and people thereafter enslaved on farm communes, where they were to
undergo re-education. In addition money, private property and medical, educational,
cultural and religious institutions were abolished. Over the next three years and nine
Hans Christian Post 15
__________________________________________________________________
months, an estimated 2.12 million people out of a population of 7.890.000 died.
Later analysis has indicated that approximately 1.386.734 were executed, summarily
or in the course of the many purges undertaken to rid the country of so-called ‘inner
enemies’, while the remaining victims died from starvation, exhaustion and disease. 3
In December 1978 Vietnam invaded Cambodia to end recurring Khmer Rouge
attacks on its border villages. Within days the Vietnamese overthrew Cambodia,
putting an end to the genocide, and thereafter proclaimed a new state, the People’s
Republic of Kampuchea (PRK), led by pro-Vietnamese Cambodians. The Khmer
Rouge, however, survived as a resistance movement operating from Thai bases until
1999, when they finally surrendered.
3. The Cambodian Memorial Sites

It is unclear how much influence the Vietnamese exerted, when the memorials
were created in the 1980s, but they were presumably involved in most efforts and
were certainly the driving force behind the more important memorials. Their motive
was strong. Due to Cold War politics and existing enmities, China and most of the
Western World had condemned the Vietnamese invasion and chosen to support the
Khmer Rouge instead. All aid to PRK was withheld and doubt was raised over the
genocide. 4
As memorial sites Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek were to a high degree shaped to
challenge this lack of recognition and aid. As forensic sites they could hardly have
been better suited. A few days after the overthrow, two photojournalists had
stumbled upon a former school facility in Phnom Penh, where they found 14 recently
killed prisoners as well as smaller and larger cells and myriad instruments of
detainment and torture. What they had detected was S-21, Khmer Rouge’s secret
police headquarters and central prison. Over the next days, troves of interrogation
and confession texts, entry and execution records as well as photographs of prisoners
tortured to death and thousands of mug shots were found at the site, strengthening
the initial suspicion that severe atrocities had taken place. Sensing the site’s
importance, the Vietnamese had it cleaned up and began studying the findings that
have till date revealed that 12.000-20.000 prisoners were held captive and that
presumably only 202 survived. Three weeks later journalists from socialist countries
were invited to witness what increasingly bore the marks of genocide, whereupon
Mai Lam, a Vietnamese colonel, who previously designed the Museum of American
War Crimes in Saigon, was brought in to create a genocide museum. Guided tours
were initiated one month later, but until July 1980 only foreigners were admitted.
When the ban on Cambodians was lifted, tens of thousands came, many seeking
information about missing relatives. Within three months, over 300.000 Cambodians
and 11.000 foreigners had visited. 5
Simultaneously, mass graves were detected all across Cambodia, among these
graves outside Phnom Penh at Choeung Ek that had since 1977 served as execution
grounds for primarily S-21 prisoners. In the following months, 8.895 bodies out of
__________________________________________________________________
at least 20.000 were exhumed at Choeung Ek, whereupon bones and skulls were
placed in a wooden pavilion or arranged decoratively on the ground for visiting
foreigners. 6 Eventually, in 1988, a 62-meter tall stupa with acrylic glass walls was
erected and over 5.000 skulls placed inside.
This outline of the development of the two sites indicates that the prime motives
were to justify the Vietnamese occupation and legitimize the PRK-state by proving,
beyond doubt, the murderous, criminal nature of the Khmer Rouge. Just as
Cambodia was used as a warfare tool by both North Vietnam and the US before
1975, so was commemoration after 1979 employed to serve Vietnamese interests.
Although many memorials spring from local initiatives, the prime focus in early
commemoration was not the Cambodians and their need to reflect on the genocide,
and in many ways this is still so. This becomes particularly evident, when the
monstrousity of Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek is studied up close.
4. Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

Tuol Sleng’s most prominent feature is the large display of mug shots. 7 David P.
Chandler, the renowned scholar of Cambodia’s modern history, has described them
as highly unnerving and affecting, knowing ‘as we do, and as they did not, that every
one of them was facing death when the photographs were taken’. 8 Others have
similarly described them as extraordinarily moving, and in 1997, 22 of the mug shots
were even exhibited as art objects in a controversial exhibition in MoMA and later
sold through a gallery. 9
That the mug shots are moving can hardly be denied. A reason for this is that we
in each witness the genocidal crimes as they are initiated – the photographic act
being the first step in the dehumanizing process that transforms the victim to a
criminal to be convicted and executed – but where the victim still lives and hope
therefore seemingly still prevails. Another reason is that many of the victims look at
us with appealing emotions of sadness, distress and powerlessness, allowing for a
strong imaginary bond between victim and viewer to be established and a deep
feeling of the injustice committed against the victims to evolve.
This, however, is also, where the first troubling question arises. Most visitors to
the museum today are foreign tourists. Is it justifiable that they are moved in a
horrific but emotionally and aesthetically satisfying or even pleasurable way by the
museum’s mug shots? It can hardly be doubted that Mai Lam aimed at precisely this
effect, when the museum was created. Neither can it be doubted that most curators
of genocide evidence would make comparable choices had they had evidence of this
sort at their disposal. In the rule, genocide museums exhibit the given evidence with
the zeal of producing strong emotional and moral responses. But since the artefacts
are not as powerful and bond creating as Tuol Sleng’s mug shots, motives and
politics behind the curatorial decisions, and the emotional and/or aesthetic pleasures
that viewing genocidal evidence can evoke are seldom felt. This is different in Tuol
Sleng and also at Choeung Ek and therefore a point, where the two sites can be said
__________________________________________________________________
to reveal what is generally at stake in genocide memory business. This said, it
remains worth asking if it is justifiable for foreign visitors to emotionally consume
the tragedy of others. But then again, as will be shown in the following, this question
probably puts too little trust in visitors as in the mug shots ability to incite critical
awareness.
5. Viewing the Mug Shots

For as theatre scholar Emma Wills has noted, the mug shots tend to produce
ambivalent, not easily consumed experiences among visitors. A reason for this is the
perspective at play. The point of view visitors must adopt is that of the perpetrator,
and this ‘makes the experience of viewing […] highly ambivalent’, since viewers
are unavoidably drawn into the dehumanizing process. In her play Photographs from
S-21, written as an answer to MoMA’s exhibition, French-American playwright
Catherine Filloux even goes a step further by criticizing, in Wills words, ‘an aesthetic
(and ethical) carelessness’ on the part of viewers, indicating that they are not
potentially, but actively involved in the dehumanizing process in that they misuse
the victims for aesthetic pleasure. 10
Wills, however, finds Filloux’ critique too far-reaching. Although visitors may
enter Tuol Sleng with a certain carelessness, they do not necessarily remain careless.
As Wills has suggested, the mug shots might in fact counter such a state of mind, at
least in the Tuol Sleng-setting, since they ‘seem to ask a question of us that is both
difficult to decipher and even more difficult to discern how to respond to’ and
therefore may have the force to ‘shock us out of unselfconscious spectatorship’. 11
Geographer Rachel Hughes’ study of tourist behaviour at Tuol Sleng confirms
that carelessness and unselfconscious spectatorship are not dominant features among
visitors. Firstly, all sorts of reactions and responses appear, and secondly, the most
prevailing reactions are silence and a concern to behave appropriately. That visitors
react in this way backs Wills’ notion that the photographs have the strength to evoke
unfamiliarity and ambivalence. But as Hughes goes on to remark, the unfamiliarity
also stems from a general lack of interpretative information – a curatorial silence
that leads to most visitors leaving the museum in a state of confusion. 12 With this
remark we turn from the tourists and look instead at the exhibition itself and its
possible dehumanizing effects.
6. The Silences at Tuol Sleng

In her recent book, Archiving the Unspeakable, archival scholar Michelle
Caswell explores the many silences in and around the mug shots. Caswell notes that
silence is a key problematic in relation to the mug shots as these were made by the
Khmer Rouge to ultimately silence (exterminate) the victims. Drawing on this, she
regards later silences in the curatorial and archival processes as potential repetitions
of the dehumanizing process – as suppression, victimization, misuse or ultimately:
extermination. At the same time, however, she acknowledges that the mug shots
__________________________________________________________________
have taken on a life of their own in unforeseen ways, often partially countering the
dehumanizing process they originally stem from, and as she shows throughout her
book they have the potential to take on even more life of their own.
Looking at the current exhibition, which to a large extent dates back to the early
1980s, silences appear at several levels. There are firstly the silences evoked by the
lack of adequate, in-depth information. On the information boards the genocide is
reduced to a simple story of a few monsters, foremost Pol Pot, turning a genuine
socialist revolution into fascism, while considerations, what the guilt of other actors
and nations, among these Vietnam, could be, and what other factors played a role,
are left out. Secondly, the mug shots can be said to silence the additional thousands
of mug shots that were presumably made, but never found at the prison, just as they
can be said to silence the remaining more than two million victims, who were never
photographed in the first place leaving voids that cannot be filled. Thirdly, there is a
double silence in relation to the identity of prisoners. The majority of Tuol Sleng
prisoners were Khmer Rouge members accused of treason, and included high-level
officials along with their families. It can therefore be assumed that a proportion of
the displayed victims were once regime sympathisers and that some had even been
supporters of or partakers in the genocide. This, nonetheless, remains untold. The
victims are reduced to a homogenous, anonymous mass, and although this might
give viewers an experience of the genocide’s massive scale and of the anonymity
and silence the victims were rendered, it is at the cost of more precise knowledge
about S-21 and the genocide that could challenge the stereotype, monster-ridden
narratives. 13
A final silence that is worth elaborating on is that the personal identities of the
victims are silenced. This, above all, results from the fact that files and mug shots
were separated, when Khmer Rouge evacuated the prison, but also stems from later
neglects. Until recently there have been only few attempts to exhibit biographical
data of victims, once these have come to light. This, however, is slowly changing,
and this change marks an interesting development that could prove valuable for
future commemorative efforts in Cambodia.
7. Resetting the Focus

When one visits Tuol Sleng today, there is a striking lack of Cambodians. The
reasons for this are surely manifold. But one can view it as yet another silence. The
Cambodian survivors were silenced, as they were not the focal point when the
museum was created. The initial interest of locals was clearly there, and many of the
over 300.000 Cambodians, who visited in 1980, in fact used the exhibition in ways
that could be forward-pointing. They did not come to be haunted or moved, but to
search for loved ones that had gone missing during the Khmer Rouge-regime, and
when a photograph of a relative or acquaintance was found, many added the person’s
name. 14 The motive behind this act was clearly to gain and give certitude. As such,
it marks an early attempt to counter the dehumanizing silences and give back to the
__________________________________________________________________
victims some of their identity and life story, just as it marks an attempt to reset the
focus and make commemoration less a foreign matter.
In recent years DC-CAM assisted by other institutions has done a lot to further
pursue this. The centre has established a digital database of the mug shots with a
search function, thereby making it easier for survivors to specify their search for
relatives. At the same time DC-CAM has helped relatives identify victims through
its monthly magazine Searching for the Truth. Finally, it has added photographs to
the exhibition of, for instance, grandchildren holding the mug shot of a grandparent
they have never met, thereby symbolically bringing victims back into their larger
life stories. It is of course a very small step considering that this might only be
possible in a few cases and that the majority of Cambodian survivors, who saw
relatives ‘disappear’ during the Khmer Rouge-period or lost track of them as cities
were evacuated, will therefore have to live on in incertitude. Still, if more attempts
of this sort were made and displayed, it could pave the way for more critical dialogue
among Cambodians on the genocide as well as on commemoration and its hitherto
unresolved focal points in Cambodia. 15
8. Setbacks and Resistance at Choeung Ek Killing Fields

Speaking of unresolved focal points, it is rewarding to shortly turn to Choeung
Ek Killing Fields, where skulls of many Tuol Sleng victims are displayed in a 62-
metre tall stupa. Although a nearby sign urges visitors to act respectfully, the
memorial site and its stupa is a harsh reminder that respect for victims and survivors
remains in short supply in Cambodian memory politics, not least as the site was 10
years ago leased for a 30 period to a joint Japanese-Cambodian company whose
objective has above all been to increase revenues. But interestingly enough the skulls
at a symbolic level conduct their own protest against this and other acts of misuse
and disempowerment. Whereas the mug shots of victims were exposed to the
somewhat exploiting gazes of foreign visitors, the skulls at Choeung Ek appear to
look into the far distance, as to regain some pride and resist their exposure and the
on-going political inability at both national and international levels to bring justice
to victims and survivors in Cambodia. Silently overlooking the surrounding
Cambodian landscape they remind us that the genocide is still escaping both justice
and understanding, and that Cambodia is still far from finding rest.
Notes
1
‘Mapping the Killing Fields’, DC-CAM, viewed 26 April 2015,
http://www.d.dccam.org/Projects/Maps/MappingKillingField.htm.
2
The Khmer Rouge, which initially formed an insignificant communist movement,
had gained momentum in the late 1960s and especially from 1970 onwards, as the
Vietnam War expanded into Cambodia as a civil war between on the one hand the
Khmer Rouge militia assisted by North Vietnamese troops, and on the other hand
__________________________________________________________________
the US backed Khmer Republic led by Marshal Lon Nol. The uneven war, which
claimed the lives of an estimated 250.000 Cambodians, ended on April 17th 1975
with the Khmer Rouge seizing Phnom Penh. Bruce Sharp, ‘Counting Hell’, Mekong,
viewed 26 April 2015, http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/deaths.htm.
3
Ibid.
4
Rachel Hughes, ‘Dutiful Tourism: Encountering the Cambodian Genocide’, Asia
Pacific Viewpoint 49.3 (2008): 326.
5
David P. Chandler, Voices from S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot’s Secret Prison
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), 2-8; Cheang Sokha and James
O’Toole, ‘More than 200 Survived S-21 Prison: Report’, The Phnom Penh Post, 4
January 2011, viewed 26 April 2015,
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/more-200-survived-s-21-prison-report.
6
Wynne Cougill, ‘Buddhist Cremation Traditions for the Dead and the Need to
Preserve Forensic Evidence in Cambodia’, DC-CAM, viewed 26 April 2015,
http://www.d.dccam.org/Projects/Maps/Buddhist_Cremation_Traditions.htm.
7
All prisoners were photographed upon arrival as part of the registration process.
Although 12.000 to 20.000 prisoners are estimated to have been held at S-21, far less
mug shots have till this day been found. Michelle Caswell, Archiving the
Unspeakable: Silence, Memory, and the Photographic Record in Cambodia
(Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2014), 27.
8
Chandler, Voices from S-21, 13.
9
Emma Wills, Theatricality, Dark Tourism and Ethical Spectatorship: Absent
Others (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 143.
10
Ibid., 147-148; The play imagines two mug shot subjects, a male and a female,
reveal parts of their personal stories after closing time and talk about, what it means
for them to be displayed as museum objects. Mid-way through the play the two
characters raise the issue of viewer complicity by addressing the visitors: ‘Young
Woman: Who are they, who look? // Young Man: Ghosts, maybe… Ghosts of the
Khmer Rouge. // Young Woman: But they do not look the same. // Young Man: Why
else would they come back again and again to see us? To check on us?’. Ibid., 150.
11
Ibid., 139.
12
Hughes, ‘Dutiful Tourism’, 324-325.
13
Caswell, Archiving the Unspeakable, 8, 58-59, 65.
14
Ibid., 64.
15
Ibid., 84-88, 120-135.
Bibliography
Caswell, Michelle. Archiving the Unspeakable: Silence, Memory, and the
Photographic Record in Cambodia. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of
Wisconsin Press, 2014.
__________________________________________________________________
Chandler, David P. Voices from S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot’s Secret Prison.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
Cougill, Wynne. ‘Buddhist Cremation Traditions for the Dead and the Need to
Preserve Forensic Evidence in Cambodia’. DC-CAM. Viewed 26 April 2015.
http://www.d.dccam.org/Projects/Maps/Buddhist_Cremation_Traditions.htm.
Hughes, Rachel. ‘Dutiful Tourism: Encountering the Cambodian Genocide’. Asia

Pacific Viewpoint 49.3 (2008): 318-330.
‘Mapping the Killing Fields’. DC-CAM. Viewed 26 April 2015.

http://www.d.dccam.org/Projects/Maps/MappingKillingField.htm.
Sokha, Cheang and James O’Toole. ‘More than 200 Survived S-21 Prison: Report’.
The Phnom Penh Post, 4 January 2011. Viewed 26 April 2015.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/more-200-survived-s-21-prison-report.
Sharp, Bruce. ‘Counting Hell’. Mekong. Viewed 26 April 2015.

http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/deaths.htm.
Wills, Emma. Theatricality, Dark Tourism and Ethical Spectatorship: Absent

Others. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
Hans Christian Post is a postdoc at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies at
the University of Copenhagen. He has written a PhD on the master plan competition
for Berlin’s Alexanderplatz in 1993 and is generally interested in the intertwining of
city planning, building preservation, memory, and history politics.
Monsters Take to the Streets! Monstrous Street-Art as Pedagogy
of Resistance to Post-Olympic Regeneration in Hackney Wick?
Rhiannon Firth
Abstract
This chapter explores geographies of gentrification and resistance in relation to the
monstrous through the lens of street-art in post-Olympic London. It takes as a
geographic case study Hackney Wick, which has for a long time been a bastion of
alternative and creative living due to cheap rents in large, ex-industrial warehouse
spaces. The artistic sociality of the area is imbued within its landscape, as prolific
street artists have adorned ex-industrial warehouses and canal-side walls with graffiti
and murals. Since the announcement of the 2012 Olympic Games, the area has been
a site of intense political and aesthetic contestation. The post-Olympic legacy means
that the area has been earmarked for redevelopment, with current residents facing
the possibility of joining thousands already displaced by the games. The anxiety of
dispossession is reflected by monstrous characters and sinister disembodied teeth,
eyes and fingers embedded within the landscape, painted by local artists. Using
geographically sensitive mobile and visual methodology to document the landscape
and artwork, the chapter analyses and interprets the monstrous themes using a range
of theorists including Mikhail Bakhtin, Georges Bataille and Nick Land. I argue that
monstrous street-art lays visible claim to public territory for aesthetic purposes at
odds with the visions of redevelopers and the needs of capital. Whilst street-art and
graffiti do not fit easily within frameworks of organized political resistance or
collective social movements, they operate as a kind of epistemological transgression
that triggers transformative affects in the viewer. This creates conditions for
pedagogies of resistance to gentrification by expressing and mobilizing political
affects such as anger and anxiety, raising awareness of geographical politics, and
encouraging the viewer to question the status quo of the built environment.
Key Words: Gentrification, resistance, street art, graffiti, monstrous, situationist

methods, Bakhtin, Bataille, Nick Land, Hackney Wick.
*****
1. Introduction
I was drawn to the conference: ‘Monstrous Geographies: Places and Spaces of
Monstrosity’, from which this chapter results, because the title offered a lens through
which to think about something that had been lurking in the shadows of my
consciousness for some time whilst walking through my neighbourhood, Hackney
Wick and Fish Island. These are two adjacent areas of London drawn together in the
context of the post-Olympic Games redevelopment legacy. They have rich industrial
histories dating back to around 1860 and a rich architecture of beautiful old
warehouses. The area has been dedicated to light industry for the last 40 years, and
24 Monsters Take to the Streets!
__________________________________________________________________
more recently artists and creative professionals have been re-purposing old industrial
infrastructure. In the context of the Olympic Games legacy, the area is undergoing
intense ‘gentrification’, with large plots of land and old warehouses being sold off
to developers and existing residents being priced out of the market.
What brought the area to mind in the context of ‘Monstrous Geographies’ was
another aspect of the changing landscape: the words and images that appear on the
walls one day, to be viewed, experienced and admired or detested by passers-by,
then painted over with something different another day. I live in the area, and these
are the monsters with which I have the most intimate relationship and day-to-day
contact. In this chapter, I would like to explore their transgressive potential,
conceptualizing these monsters as an irruption of the unconscious into the built
environment, a carnivalesque underworld – what Bakhtin terms the ‘material bodily
stratum’ 1 that expresses and produces affects and triggers a pedagogical function
that transforms the consciousness of the viewer.
1. Street-Art: Transgression and Complicity

Street-art is a form of illicit or illegal drawing in public space. It is distinct from
graffiti, yet the boundaries are blurred and the histories intertwined. 2 Jeff Ferrell
argues that ‘anarchic’ citizens such as street-artists articulate desires and possibilities
beyond the needs of private capital, raising questions of legitimate property rights
and aesthetic value whilst reassembling public space and community. 3 Nonetheless,
it would be erroneous to view street-art as solely a transgressive or resistant practice.
It is simultaneously a ‘subcultural activity’ and a ‘mainstream indicator of “urban
cool.”’ 4 Street-art can be an integral part of the process of regeneration, creating an
atmosphere of creativity and vibrancy that is later drawn upon by planning
authorities and developers to make an area seem appealing. 5 This may or may not
be congruent with the desires of the artists. 6 In the context of Hackney Wick, Iain
Sinclair suggests that many of the artists hail from the nexus of the squatting and
warehouse community that gentrification looks liable to displace, which would
suggest that gentrification is not in the interests of (some) artists. 7 Street-art is an
area where motives and intentions are hard to discern, unethical to impute, and
potentially as multiple as the individuals who choose to communicate in public
space. Furthermore, motives are potentially irrelevant since artists cannot impose or
elicit singular meanings from their viewers. 8 The purpose of this chapter is not to
speculate on motives, but rather to sketch an affective landscape, resisting
interpretive closure whilst engaging with spatial multiplicity and epistemological
transgression. Street-art has a tendency to raise extreme emotions in viewers,
bringing the imaginal or unconscious into material space, questioning physical and
psychic boundaries. The chapter speaks to a growing body of geographic literature
calling for a move away from dispassionate, Cartesian observations as the basis for
understanding visual culture and a move towards embodied accounts. 9
Rhiannon Firth 25
__________________________________________________________________
2. Monsters and Transgression
My starting point is the uncanny resonance between the functions of street-art
and monstrosity. They have similar epistemological and pedagogical functions:
looking beyond the given, transgressing fixed knowledge, questioning boundaries
and raising ethico-political questions. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen suggests that we ‘read
cultures from the monsters they engender’. 10 Where street-art exists at the
intersection of ‘subculture’ and ‘mainstream’, monsters also have a tendency to exist
simultaneously ‘outside’ and ‘inside’. 11 Theorists of the monstrous articulate it as
the uncanny that resides in the unconscious as an aspect of the repressed subject. 12
It is the Real, the unknowable, the shadow, the Other. 13 However, some texts also
play with the possibility that it can also signify a more affirmative transgression –
escape, queering, 14 the breakdown of boundaries and oppressive categories 15 and in-
betweenness, difference and social rebellion. 16 Like street-art, monsters may not be
explicitly or intentionally political, yet they transgress taken-for-granted
assumptions and in so doing open up possibilities by creating new affects.
In theorizing the transgressive function of monstrous street-art, I draw
particularly on the works of Bakhtin, Bataille and Nick Land who all elaborate
understandings of the monstrous as transformative of consciousness in a way that
transgresses the divide between aesthetics and politics. All three theorists begin from
an approach that is critical of homogeneity imposed by capitalism, which is viewed
as a psychic repression of the affective force of terror and death. 17 The monstrous
also has a utopian aspect. It produces an excess: there is a form of resistance to be
found in unconventional, monstrous, grotesque bodies and what these have to say on
the themes of death, transgression, hybridity and heterogeneity. The monstrous is
notorious for its capacity to unsettle. Tied to Freud’s notion of the ‘Uncanny’, it has
the capacity to ‘generate material of uncertain epistemological status’. 18 Using
monstrous imagery designed to provoke affects such as eroticism and disgust, the
theorists transgress the fundamental limit between life and death 19 and collapse
boundaries between bodies by exploring the transgression of presumed binaries such
as human/animal, 20 human/nature, 21 desire/disgust, 22 animate/inanimate, 23
macrocosm/microcosm, 24 individual/social, 25 hierarchy/becoming, 26
wisdom/madness, upper/lower body or mouth/anus. The theme of transgression
27 28
has been elaborated by feminist and queer theorists who have drawn attention to the
importance of transgressing gender, class and social norms including inside/outside,
female/male, foreign/native, proletarian/aristocrat. 29
Articulating these transgressions by means of language and aesthetics of the
monstrous creates a pedagogy that is both uncomfortable and comic, and expresses
what Bakhtin terms the ‘struggle against cosmic terror … an obscure memory of
cosmic perturbations in the distant past and the dim terror of future catastrophes form
the very basis of human thought, speech and images’. 30 Hierarchical systems can
seize on this affective terror for political purposes: ‘It is used by all religious systems
to oppress man and his consciousness’. 31 Monstrous aesthetics have a pedagogical
__________________________________________________________________
function because the grotesque image of the body portrayed in monstrous images
and culture ‘transforms cosmic terror into a gay carnival monster’ 32 whereby ‘Terror
is conquered by laughter’. 33 This shift of perspective allows one to approach
alienating phenomena on the ‘plane of material sensual experience’. 34
3. Methodology
My assumption is that street-art constitutes a conversation in the public sphere, 35
not always intelligible at a rational level yet with potentially transformative effects
on viewers at an affective level. 36 ‘Affect’ is an aspect of radical pedagogy drawn
from Deleuzian theory. 37 It has been taken up by anarchists 38 and post-
structuralists 39 and resonates with themes in situationist and psychogeographic
literatures. 40 Affect refers to an intensity of experience that exceeds individualized
emotions and feelings, drawing attention to the ways in which desire flows through
and changes multiplicities including peoples, groups and the built environment. 41
This approach treats the pedagogical moment as becoming-other, a transgression,
rather than imbuing fixed knowledge within a fixed being, cultivating awareness of
multiple perspectives on processes of alienation so as to open one’s own perception
to the perspectives of others. 42 Inspired by the situationists and their concepts of
dérive and détournement, Alexander Bridger contends that it is possible to dissociate
oneself from one’s conventional, everyday understandings of the urban environment
and reach a kind of critical consciousness as to how the environment is both shaped
by social conditions and indeed helps to shape those everyday experiences and
understandings that it is normally hard to step outside. 43 Similarly, my data
collection combined the practice of critical walking with autoethnographic notes and
photographs, offering a narrative account interspersed with photographs in dialogue
with the theorists of transgression. Having read the texts prior to my walk, I re-read
the theorists through and with the landscape in Hackney Wick.
4. An Affective Cartography
I undertook three dice walks of around an hour each. I decided on the rules
beforehand; that is, the direction that each number would signify at different types
of crossing. I also decided on the boundaries of the area that I would stay within.
This included Hackney Wick and Fish Island, the boundaries of which are easy to
identify both on a map and within the territory because they form a triangle with the
A12 road on two sides, and the Lee Navigation Canal on another side. I took notes
and photographs as I walked and consulted the texts. What follows are a very limited
number of examples from a larger pool of data, due to the restraints of the word limit
for the chapter.
Rhiannon Firth 27
__________________________________________________________________
Image 1: Street-art around fire escape on Smeed Road warehouse. Photograph

© 2015. Rhiannon Firth. Used with permission.
Image 2: Street-art on roof of Smeed Road warehouse. Photograph

© 2015 Rhiannon Firth. Used with permission.
From Dice Walk #1: Images showing the stereotypical pink gums and teeth of
the artist Sweet Toof. 44 Disembodied teeth seem transgressive because they return
us to ‘partial objects’, deconstructing the unity of the self and returning us to the
material bodily stratum through emphasis on the body. 45 They give living form to
the buildings, turning inert matter into organic mouths, and transgress self/other
relations, drawing the buildings closer to human experience, suspending
alienation. 46
Disembodied teeth and gums transgress certain binaries: life/death, body/world.
For Bakhtin, ‘gaping jaws’, teeth and the mouth represent the entrance to the body,
__________________________________________________________________
showing that it is open to the world and to others, rather than closed and
individualised. 47 Land frequently links death to its ability to ‘bite’ and it is stated
that death has ‘teeth’. 48 For Bataille, the mouth is primitive and animalistic,
representing the affective and pre-rational aspects of the human, expressing both
rage and terror. 49 I wonder: are these teeth trying to express rage, or terror? Do they
say ‘We are frightened’ or ‘we are frightening’? Perhaps they are transgressing
individualized emotions in this sense, and suspending the alienation presumed
between that which is frightened and that which is frightening, expressing a
conception of affect laid out on ‘one plane of material sensual experience’ 50 and
transgressing the limits separating the body from the world. 51 Might this provoke to
a feeling of empathy and connectedness with the built environment? The
methodology used in this chapter raises more questions than answers, in the same
way that the images might create ‘openness’, in the Bakhtinian sense, to otherness.
Image 3: Street-art on junction of Smeed Road and Stour Road. Photograph

From Dice Walk #1: The image looks somewhat like a baby with one eye,
perhaps a rather cute Cyclops, it makes me feel a combination of innocence, intrigue,
fear and horror. Nick Land quotes Nietzsche: ‘Only your eye – monstrously/ stares
at me infinitely’. 52 Bataille views the eye as ‘extreme seductiveness at the boundary
of horror’ 53 and as symbolic of consciousness. It is positioned as a ‘third eye’ or
Pineal Eye, on which Bataille also writes as being connected to the attainment of
excess through a primordial relationship to nature. 54 Bakhtin recounts how Rabelais
loved ‘free play with the human body’ including ‘cyclopes with one eye on the
forehead, others with eyes on shoulders or their backs’. 55 The eye is an opening to
the body. It receives information and produces a viewpoint or perspective. Like other
Rhiannon Firth 29
__________________________________________________________________
monstrous characters, the Cyclops emphasizes the ways in which ‘its exterior aspect
is not distinct from the inside, and the exchange between the body and the world is
emphasized’. 56 Perhaps the Cyclops has something to say about the ways in which
humans are formed by their environment, and the importance of maintaining
connectedness.
Image 4: Street-art outside Stour Space. Photograph

From Dice Walk #1: This image, which is outside the Counter Café and gallery
Stour Space seems to be a female figure, perhaps with a mouse ear, with a climbing
plant strategically placed over the pubic region; reminiscent of themes surrounding
the transgression of human/animal, human/nature and self/other. Deleuze and
Guattari place great emphasis on the importance of becoming-other, for example
becoming-animal as a form of resistance and transgression. 57 Bakhtin also imagines
a form of human-animal relations in terms of becoming. 58 Becoming resists
hierarchy and alienation, because a hierarchy can ‘determine only that which
represents stable, immovable, and unchangeable being, not free becoming’. 59
__________________________________________________________________
Image 5: Street-art on Stour Road. Photograph

From Dice walk #1: This seems to be a reptile or dinosaur running on two legs
and with a body like a human, again echoing themes surrounding human/animal
hybridity and transgression. He returns us to the material bodily stratum because
he’s expressing a clear affect, possibly fear, and is running from the fire that he
cannot escape, reminiscent of ‘cosmic terror’ discussed above, yet like Bakhtin’s
grotesque images, he is a comic character, with a flabby blue physique.
From Dice walk #2: The skeletons are monstrous, and transgressive because they
are the living dead; they transgress the life/death binary. Their placing on an
erstwhile advertising billboard is ominous. For Nick Land, Capitalism is founded on
an Enlightenment rationality where death is hidden from view, and prevented from
‘injecting a transcendent reference into production, and ensuring superterrestrial
interests their rights’. 60 People continue to defer pleasure and gratification because
they are not aware of their own mortality. A reading of this mural as critical or radical
might posit the skeletons as a metaphor for capitalism, masculinity or modernity,
showing the domination of the forces of death over life in capitalism: ‘Compared to
the immortal soul of capital, the death of the individual becomes an empirical
triviality, a mere re-allocation of stock’. 61 Nonetheless, this particular image makes
Rhiannon Firth 31
__________________________________________________________________
me feel uncomfortable because of the gender positionality and objectification of the
women.
Image 6: Street-art on Billboard on White Post Lane. Photograph

5. Conclusion
Monstrous street art reminds us of death as an imminent (and immanent) threat
rather than something ‘toothless’ that can be rationalized or reasoned away through
transcendental theism: ‘The death “proper” to matter is the jagged edge of its
impropriety, its teeth’. 62 The images transgress habitual thinking about binaries
between living and inert matter, the animate and inanimate, as well as portraying
body-horror and death directly. The monstrous, disembodied body parts and deathly
figures of the street-art in Hackney Wick give rise to anxious affects, reminding us
of our own mortality in a time where usually ‘death is privatized, withdrawn into
interiority, to flicker at the edge of the contract as a narcissistic anxiety without
public accreditation’. 63 Revelation of death and mortality highlights alienation. 64
However, the monsters also have a utopian aspect, inviting us to imagine a world
with different boundaries, differently conceived relations with nature and between
Self and Other. Drawing on the theorists, and my personal affective responses to the
images, I would like to posit the idea of a pedagogical cartography, which articulates
the affective potential of the landscape. As a methodology, psychogeographical
wanderings are flawed in some respects. In particular, it presents a very
individualized and personal perspective. Nonetheless, working with affect and
embodiment is important, because these are essential aspects of everyday life for all
humans 65 and have frequently been neglected in much critical and political theory. 66
__________________________________________________________________
The images open up questions about what it means to be human, whilst producing
affects that may be either comforting or unsettling yet produce a dis-alienating,
creative relationship to the built environment. Street-art takes the walls of run-down
areas as a basis to form a ‘transgressive utopia’; a term coined by Lucy Sargisson to
refer to bodies of thought and bodies of people living together in intentional
communities. She argues that these illustrate the possibility of ‘other’ ways of living,
and ‘re-inscribe alternative relations onto the culture that we inhabit’ 67 by
transgressing fixed knowledge and assumptions regarding, for example,
public/private property and Self/Other Relations. As such, transgressive utopias
offer an important resource for political thought, and as I have argued elsewhere, for
pedagogical thought. 68 In this chapter I have shown some of the ways in which
monstrous street-art has a transgressive function at an epistemological level, in
particular transgressing concepts such as Self/Other, Life/Death, Human/Animal,
Culture/Nature: ‘Guerrilla artists, whatever their motives, collaborate with the
architecture of ruin. Living arms and hands intertwine with bindweed and yarrow.
Pink-gummed mouths grin on concrete stumps’. 69 Bringing the landscape to life
arguably adds to its value, rendering it animate, and worth protecting. Furthermore,
one could argue for a political function: in a world where space is becoming
increasingly privatized, these conversations on the walls of the changing landscape
might be seen as a way of opening up public space. Nonetheless, these practices fall
far short of organized political resistance, and as noted previously in this chapter,
street-art is often a precursor, whether intentional or not, to the gentrification
process. There is no doubt that monstrous street-art articulates transgressive desires,
both through the process (which may involve illegal activity and trespass) and
through aesthetics. The transgressive potential of monstrous street-art lies in its
ambiguity, and its ability to transgress set assumptions, expectations and knowledge
at an epistemological level by creating space for audiences to be affectively
challenged through encounters with diversity and difference within the urban
environment. I would like to conclude with an open-ended suggestion as an area for
further study, the relationship between epistemological-aesthetic transgression and
political resistance in the context of gentrifying geographical change.
Notes
1
Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, trans. Hélène Iswolsky (Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1984), 370.
2
Alison Young, Street Art, Public City: Law, Crime and the Urban Imagination
(Abingdon: Routledge, 2014), 1. See also Orestis Pangalos, ‘Testimonies and
Appraisals on Athens Graffiti, Before and After the Crisis’, Remapping Athens: A
Guide to Athens, eds. Myrto Tsilimpounidi and Aylwyn Walsh (Alresford: Zero
Books, 2014), 154-176.
Rhiannon Firth 33
__________________________________________________________________
3
Jeff Ferrell, Tearing Down the Streets: Adventures in Urban Anarchy (Basingstoke:
Palgrave, 2001), 246
4
Young, Street Art, Public City, 2.
5
BAVO, ‘Plea for an Uncreative City’, BAVO Research, August 31, 2006, Viewed
on 27 March 2015, http://www.bavo.biz/texts/view/156.
6
Andrew Harris, ‘Art and Gentrification: Pursuing the Urban Pastoral in Hoxton,
London’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 37 (2011): 226-241,
234.
7
Iain Sinclair, Ghost Milk: Calling Time on the Grand Project (London: Penguin
Books, 2011), 73.
8
Nick Schuermans, Maarten Loopmans and Joke Vandenabeele, ‘Public Space,
Public Art and Public Pedagogy’, Social & Cultural Geography 13.7 (2012): 675-
682.
9
Harriet Hawkins, ‘“The Argument of the Eye”? The Cultural Geographies of
Installation Art’, Cultural Geographies 17.3 (2010): 321-340. See also Alexander
Bridger, ‘Psychogeography and the Study of Social Environments: Extending Visual
Research in Psychology’, Visual Methods in Psychology: Using and Interpreting
Images in Qualitative Research, ed. Paula Reavey (Sussex: Psychology Press, 2011),
284-295; Alexander Bridger, ‘Psychogeography and Feminist Methodology’,
Feminism & Psychology 23.3 (2013): 285-298.
10
Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, ‘Monster Culture (Seven Theses)’, Monster Theory:
Reading Culture, ed. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 1996): 3-25, 3.
11
Tyson E. Lewis and Richard Kahn, Education Out of Bounds: Reimagining
Cultural Studies for a Posthuman Age (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 2.
12
Sigmund Freud, The Uncanny (London: Penguin Books, 2003). See also Hélène
Cixous, ‘Fiction and Its Phantoms: A Reading of Freud’s Das Unheimliche (The
Uncanny)’, New Literary History 7.3 (1976): 525-548.
13
Margrit Shildrick, Embodying the Monster: Encounters with the Vulnerable Self
(London: Sage Publications, 2002).
14
Judith Halberstam, Skin Shows (Durham and London: Duke University Press,
1995).
15
Lewis and Kahn, Education Out of Bounds, 2.
16
Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World. See also Georges Bataille Visions of Excess:
Selected Writings 1927-1939, trans. and ed. Allan Stoekl (Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 1985).
17
Nick Land, The Thirst for Annihilation: Georges Bataille and Virulent Nihilism
(An Essay in Atheistic Religion) (London and New York: Routledge, 1992), 112;
Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, 335-339; Georges Bataille, The Bataille Reader,
eds. Fred Botting and Scott Wilson (Oxford: Blackwell, 1997), 81.
18
Hugh Haughton, ‘Introduction’ to The Uncanny, by Sigmund Freud (London:
Penguin Books, 2003): i-lv, xlvii.
__________________________________________________________________
19
Bataille, The Bataille Reader, 42; Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, 322, 352;
Land, The Thirst for Annihilation, 111-112.
20
Land, The Thirst for Annihilation, 175-202.
21
Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, 328.
22
Bataille, The Bataille Reader, 253; Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, 305.
23
24
Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, 361; Nick Land, Fanged Noumena: Collected
Writings 1987-2007, eds. Robin MacKay and Ray Brassier (Falmouth: Urbanomic,
2011), 269.
25
26
Ibid., 364.
27
Ibid., 361.
28
Bataille, Visions of Excess, 88; Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, 323.
29
Halberstam, Skin Shows, 1.
30
31
Ibid., 335.
32
Ibid., 335.
33
Ibid., 336.
34
Ibid., 381.
35
Ferrell, Tearing Down the Streets, 192.
36
Alison Young, ‘Criminal Images: The Affective Judgment of Graffiti and Street
Art’, Crime, Media, Culture 8 (2012): 297-314.
37
Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus (London: Continuum,
1988), 265.
38
Paul Routledge, ‘Toward a Relational Ethics of Struggle: Embodiment, Affinity,
and Affect’, Contemporary Anarchist Studies, eds. Randall Amster, Abraham
DeLeon, Luis A. Fernandez, Anthony J. Nocella II and Deric Shannon (Oxford:
Routledge, 2009), 82-92.
39
Nigel Thrift, ‘Intensities of Feeling: Towards a Spatial Politics of Affect’,
Geografiska Annaler B 86 (2004): 57-78; Michalinos Zembylas, ‘Risks and
Pleasures: A Deleuzo-Guattarian Pedagogy of Desire in Education’, British
Educational Research Journal 33.3 (2007): 331-347; Sarah Amsler, ‘From
“Therapeutic” to Political Education: The Centrality of Affective Sensibility in
Critical Pedagogy’, Critical Studies in Education 52.1 (2011): 47-63.
40
David Pinder, ‘Subverting Cartography: The Situationists and Maps of the City’,
Environment and Planning A 28.3 (1996): 405-427, 415.
41
Alejandro de Acosta, ‘Two Undecidable Questions for Thinking in which
Anything Goes’, Contemporary Anarchist Studies, eds. Randall Amster, Abraham
DeLeon, Luis A. Fernandez, Anthony J. Nocella II and Deric Shannon (Oxford:
Routledge, 2009): 26-43, 28; Thrift, ‘Intensities of Feeling’, 60.
42
Megan Boler, Feeling Power: Emotions and Education (New York: Routledge,
1999): 185; Sara C. Motta, ‘Teaching Global and Social Justice as Transgressive
Rhiannon Firth 35
__________________________________________________________________
Spaces of Possibility’, Antipode 45.1 (2013): 80-100; Michalinos Zembylas,

‘Witnessing in the Classroom: The Ethics and Politics of Affect’, Educational
Theory 56.3 (2006): 305-324.
43
Bridger, ‘Psychogeography and the Study of Social Environments’; Bridger,
‘Psychogeography and Feminist Methodology’, 286.
44
It is beyond the scope of this research to determine the authenticity of public street-
art. Works by the artist Sweet Toof can be found on the website: Sweet Toof, Official
Website, 2012, Viewed on 27 March 2015, http://sweettoof.com.
45
46
Ibid., 381.
47
Ibid., 338-339.
48
Land, The Thirst for Annihilation, 111.
49
Bataille, Visions of Excess, 59-60.
50
51
Ibid., 347.
52
Nietzsche, The Gay Science, section 371, quoted in Land, Fanged Noumena, 228.
53
Bataille, The Bataille Reader, 17.
54
Bataille, Visions of Excess, 82.
55
56
Ibid., 355.
57
Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus, 269-270.
58
59
Ibid., 364.
60
Land, The Thirst for Annihilation, 111.
61
Ibid.
62
Ibid.
63
Ibid.
64
Bataille, The Bataille Reader, 242-245.
65
Henri Lefebvre, The Critique of Everyday Life (London: Verso, 2014).
66
Bridger, ‘Psychogeography and Feminist Methodology’, 285.
67
Lucy Sargisson, Utopian Bodies and the Politics of Transgression (London:
Routledge, 2000), 116.
68
Rhiannon Firth, ‘Toward a Critical Utopian and Pedagogical Methodology’,
Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies 35.4 (2013): 256-276.
69
Sinclair, Ghost Milk, 120-121.
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Rhiannon Firth 37
__________________________________________________________________
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singulièrement avec la division qui désolait la France. Les dévots serviteurs
de l’Archange avaient besoin de fidélité, d’union et de dévouement, pour
soutenir les intérêts de l’Église et de l’État; car, bientôt après, la guerre
éclata et couvrit le royaume de sang et de ruines. Le prince de Condé se mit
à la tête des hérétiques et se déclara l’ennemi juré de Charles IX, son
souverain, et de tous les catholiques de France. Comme en toutes les
calamités publiques, les regards se portèrent aussitôt vers le prince de la
milice céleste. Paris donna l’exemple. Le 29 septembre 1568, jour de la fête
de saint Michel, on fit dans la capitale une procession solennelle pour
implorer la protection de l’Archange vainqueur de Satan; la cour, plusieurs
évêques, les ordres religieux, une foule innombrable de fidèles assistaient à
cette pieuse cérémonie; au milieu des rangs pressés de la multitude, on
portait les reliques insignes de toutes les églises de la ville. Jamais Paris
n’avait organisé une manifestation plus imposante en l’honneur de saint
Michel. L’année suivante, les ennemis furent taillés en pièce à Jarnac et à
Moncontour, et, en 1570, la paix fut signée à Saint-Germain.
De son côté le mont Tombe recevait chaque jour de nombreux pèlerins.
Ceux-ci venaient, à la suite de l’évêque et des chanoines d’Avranches,
déposer leurs trésors sous la garde des moines; ceux-là priaient le saint
Archange de les protéger contre les attaques des hérétiques, et de les délivrer
des embûches du démon; d’autres imploraient des grâces surnaturelles ou
demandaient la santé du corps. Le roi de France, Charles IX, voulut se mêler
à cette foule de pieux visiteurs, et, en 1561, un an après avoir reçu le titre de
chevalier, il vint en pèlerinage au Mont avec son frère, le prince Henri. Le 3
avril 1565, il modifia, comme nous l’avons dit, certains articles des statuts
primitifs, et réduisit le nombre des frères à cinquante. D’après les manuscrits
du temps, et au témoignage des autorités les plus graves citées par S.
Prévost, Feuardent et dom Huynes, cette époque fut signalée par des faits
miraculeux.
Bientôt les pèlerinages allaient devenir plus difficiles et plus périlleux, à
cause des attaques continuelles qui devaient être dirigées contre le Mont. En
1570, François le Roux se démit de sa charge en faveur de l’évêque de
Coutances, Arthur de Cossé-Brissac. Pendant que ce dernier vidait ses
démêlés avec Jean de Grimouville, prieur claustral, et le parlement de
Normandie, les disciples de Calvin, nommés huguenots, levaient de nouveau
l’étendard de la révolte et dévastaient une partie des campagnes. En l’année
1576, le Mont-Saint-Michel embrassa contre eux le parti de la ligue et
résolut de leur opposer une vigoureuse résistance. Alors, comme au temps de
la guerre des Anglais, la cité de l’Archange devint le boulevard de la France
en Normandie, et l’épée victorieuse des chevaliers repoussa les attaques des
calvinistes.
Au mois de juillet de l’année 1577 une bande de huguenots, conduits par
le sieur «du Touchet,» s’approchèrent du Mont à la faveur de la nuit. Sur les
huit heures du matin, vingt-cinq d’entre eux placèrent des armes sous la selle
de leurs chevaux et pénétrèrent dans la place déguisés en pèlerins; les autres,
cachés sur la rive d’Ardevon, attendaient le moment favorable pour voler au
secours de leurs compagnons d’armes. Les huguenots, après avoir entendu la
messe et visité le monastère, se réunirent sur le Saut-Gautier, et, de là, se
répandirent dans la ville pour accomplir leur dessein. Au signal donné, ils
désarmèrent les soldats, en tuèrent un qui refusait de rendre son épée, et
frappèrent plusieurs moines et pèlerins. Jean Le Mansel, secrétaire de
l’abbaye, reçut un coup de sabre sur la tête. En même temps le sieur «du
Touchet sortit de son embuscade avec ses cavaliers et se dirigea au galop
vers les portes de la ville.» Déjà les calvinistes criaient: «ville gaignée, ville
gaignée.» Les habitants étaient dans la consternation et n’avaient d’espoir
que dans la protection de Saint-Michel.
Le lendemain on vit apparaître à la tête d’une poignée de soldats Louis de
la Moricière, seigneur de Vicques, et enseigne du maréchal de Matignon. Il
triompha des huguenots, les fit sortir de la ville et rentra dans la forteresse au
milieu des acclamations des Montois qui le regardaient comme un libérateur.
En récompense d’un tel service, le roi de France, Henri III, le nomma
capitaine du Mont, à la place de René de Baternay et lui donna le titre de
gouverneur du château. Le brave officier repoussa pendant dix ans les
attaques réitérées des calvinistes. En 1589, le sieur de Montgommery
accompagné des capitaines Corboson et La Coudraye, surprit la ville et la
livra au pillage; mais tous ses efforts échouèrent devant la résistance de la
citadelle dont il ne put jamais s’emparer. Le gouverneur alors absent du
Mont-Saint-Michel, accourut en toute hâte et pénétra dans la place par une
entrée secrète; il rallia autour de lui une poignée de braves, fit une
vigoureuse sortie contre les huguenots et les rejeta loin des remparts.
L’année suivante, le héros chrétien mourut au siège de Pontorson victime
d’une lâche perfidie. Les moines transportèrent sa glorieuse dépouille dans
la basilique de Saint-Michel, et, après lui avoir rendu tous les honneurs
funèbres, ils l’inhumèrent dans la chapelle Sainte-Anne, où reposaient déjà
plusieurs guerriers célèbres. Au-dessus de la tombe on suspendit «la lance, le
guidon, le casque et la rondache» dont l’illustre capitaine se servait dans les
combats. Sa digne épouse, Esther de Tessier, mourut trente ans plus tard et
reçut la sépulture à l’ombre du même autel. Leur fils, Jacques de la
Moricière, doyen de la cathédrale de Bayeux, donna quarante-cinq livres de
rente au monastère pour une fondation de trois messes annuelles; l’une
devait être chantée en l’honneur des saints anges, le 23ᵉ jour de juillet; à la
procession tous les moines portaient un cierge de cire blanche, afin de
témoigner leur reconnaissance «à Dieu, à la Vierge et à saint Michel» qui
s’étaient servi de l’épée du bon et pieux gouverneur, pour délivrer la ville de
l’oppression des huguenots.
Louis de la Moricière fut remplacé par le sieur de Boissuzé. Les
calvinistes occupaient alors une partie de l’Avranchin, et le Mont-Saint-
Michel leur offrait seul une sérieuse résistance. Pendant plusieurs années, ils
employèrent tour à tour la force et la ruse pour s’emparer de cette place,
mais toujours ils furent pris dans les pièges qu’ils tendaient eux-mêmes aux
catholiques. Dom Huynes raconte en ces termes une des tentatives de
Montgommery: «Les huguenots tenant une grande partie de cette province
de Normandie sous leur puissance et particulièrement les villes et chasteaux
des environs de ce Mont, dressoient des embusches pour envahir ce sainct
lieu. Et dès aussy tost qu’ils pouvoient attraper quelqu’un de cette place le
tuoient sur le champ ou le réservoient pour le mener au gibet. Il arriva un
jour en autres qu’ils prirent un soldat et luy ayant desjà mis la corde au col
luy dirent que s’il vouloit sauver sa vie qu’il leur promit de leur livrer cette
abbaye, et que de plus ils lui donneroient une bonne somme de deniers. Cet
homme bien content de ne finir sitost ses jours, et alléché de l’argent qu’ils
luy promettoient, dit qu’il le feroit et convint avec eux des moyens de mettre
cette promesse à exécution, qui furent que le soldat reviendroit en ce Mont,
espiroit sans faire semblant de rien la commodité de les introduire
secrettement en cette abbaye et leur assigneroit le jour qu’il jugeroit plus
commode pour cet effect. Le soldat leur ayant promis de n’y manquer, ils luy
donnèrent cent escus, et, bien résolu de jouer son coup, revint où il fut receu
du capitaine de ce Mont et des soldats, sans aucun soupçon, puis se mit en
devoir d’exécuter sa promesse. Pour donc la mettre à chef, il advertit
quelques jours après ces huguenots de venir le vingt-neufiesme de
septembre, à huict heures du soir, jour de dimanche et de la dédicace des
esglises Sainct-Michel, qu’ils montassent le long des degrez de la Fontaiyne
Sainct-Aubert; qu’estant là au pied de l’édifice, il se trouveroit en la plus
basse sale de dessous le cloistre, ou se mettant dans la roue il en esleveroit
quelques-uns des leurs qui par après luy ayderoient en grand silence à
monter les autres. Ainsi par cet artifice, ce Mont estoit vendu. Mais ce soldat
considérant le mal dont il alloit estre cause, fut marry de sa lascheté et
advertit le capitaine de tout ce qui se passoit. Iceluy luy pardonna et se
résolut avec tous ses soldats et autres aydes de passer tous ses ennemys au fil
de l’espée. Quant à eux ne sçachant le changement de volonté de cet homme,
et se réjouissans de ce que le temps sembloit favoriser leur dessein, tout l’air
estant ce jour là rempli d’espaisses vapeurs (comme nous voyons arriver
souvent), qui empeschoit qu’on les put veoir venants de Courteil jusques sur
ce rocher, ne manquèrent de se trouver au lieu assigné à l’heure prescrite.
Alors le soldat faisant semblant qu’il estoit encore pour eux, se mit dans la
roue et commença de les enlever l’un après l’autre, puis deux soldats de cette
place les recevoient à bras ouverts, les conduisant jusques dans la sale qui est
dessous le refectoire, où ils leur faisoient boire plein un verre de vin pour
leur donner bon courage, mais les menant par après dans le corps de garde,
ils les transperçoient à jour, se comportans ainsy consécutivement envers
tous. Sourdeval, Montgomery et Chaseguey, conducteurs de cette canaille,
s’esmerveillans de ce qu’ils n’entendoient aucun tumulte, y en ayant desjà
tant de montez, demandoient impatiemment qu’on leur jettast un religieux
par les fenestres afin de connoistre par ce signe si tout alloit bien pour eux,
ce qui poussa les soldats de céans desjà tout acharnez de tuer un prisonnier
de guerre qu’ils avoient depuis quelques jours, lequel ils revestirent d’un
habit de religieux, puis luy firent une couronne et le jettèrent à ces ennemys.
Mais entrant en soupçon si c’estoit un religieux, Montgomery voulant
sçavoir la vérité, donna le mot du gué à un de ses plus fidelles soldats et le fit
monter devant luy; estant monté en haut et ne voyant personne des siens, il
ne manqua de s’escrier: trahison! trahison! et de ce cry les ennemys prenant
l’espouvante descendirent au plus fort du rocher, se sauvèrent le mieux
qu’ils purent, laissant quatre vingt dix huict soldats de leur compagnie,
lesquels on enterra dans les grèves à quinze pas des poulins.» Cette tentative
eut lieu en 1591.
Le Mont-Saint-Michel triomphait des ennemis de l’Église; mais la
discipline religieuse s’affaiblissait au milieu du tumulte des armées. Le
cardinal de Joyeuse, qui porta le titre d’abbé de 1588 à 1615, ne fut pas aimé
des bénédictins; en retour, il parut insensible aux intérêts du monastère et
négligea les réparations même les plus urgentes. En 1594, un onzième
incendie allumé par le feu du ciel renversa la flèche et fondit les cloches. Le
sieur de Brévent, gouverneur de l’abbaye, et Jean de Surtainville élevèrent la
tour massive qui existe aujourd’hui; mais cette belle «pyramide» qui «estoit,
au dire des annalistes, l’une des plus hautes du royaume,» ne fut pas
reconstruite et l’on ne vit plus l’image de l’Archange dominer sur le pinacle
de l’édifice.
La trahison se joignit encore aux horreurs de la guerre et de l’incendie.
Jacques de Boissuzé, jaloux de voir le sieur Vaulouet nommé à sa place
capitaine du château, jura de tirer une vengeance éclatante et tourna ses
armes contre la cité de saint Michel. Après plusieurs tentatives il pénétra
dans la ville en 1595; mais il ne put se rendre maître de la citadelle, et
quelque temps après il fut tué par les habitants du Mont. Un an plus tard, le
marquis de Belle-Isle voulut se faire ouvrir les portes de la forteresse, en sa
qualité de gouverneur de la Basse-Normandie, et, «aussy, disait-il, pour prier
l’Archange saint Michel.» Henri de la Touche, frère et lieutenant du
capitaine Julien de Quéroland, qui venait de succéder au sieur de Vaulouet,
sortit du corps de garde et alla représenter au marquis de Belle-Isle, qu’il
n’était pas prudent de pénétrer dans l’intérieur du château avec sa suite
nombreuse. Il fut convenu que cinq hommes seulement le suivraient. Julien
de Quéroland, gentilhomme breton aussi loyal que brave, reçut le traître avec
tous les honneurs possibles, sans soupçonner sa perfidie; mais comme tout le
monde entrait malgré les conventions, le caporal de garde ferma la porte. Le
sieur de Belle-Isle dit alors que si sa suite n’entrait pas il allait sortir.
Aussitôt, par ordre du capitaine, la porte fut ouverte de nouveau. Le traître
mit la main à l’épée, se précipita sur le caporal et le tua; puis, se tournant
vers Henri de la Touche, il l’étendit mort sur le pavé. Ceux de sa suite armés
de pistolets et d’épées attaquèrent le sieur de Quéroland, massacrèrent sept
hommes de la garnison et s’emparèrent du corps de garde; mais le capitaine
rallia ses hommes et revint au combat. Le marquis de Belle-Isle tomba mort,
et parmi ses gens les uns furent tués ou blessés, et les autres prirent la fuite.
Le brave de Quéroland restait maître de la ville. Les annalistes disent qu’il
reçut dans le combat «dix-huit coups tant d’espée que de pistolet.» Après
avoir triomphé d’un traître, il périt victime d’un infâme complot. Un jour, il
était sorti de la place et chevauchait sur les grèves suivi de son valet; celui-ci
soudoyé par la famille de Belle-Isle, s’approcha de lui, le tua d’un coup de
pistolet et prit la fuite à toute bride. Le héros breton fut inhumé avec son
frère dans la basilique de l’Archange auprès de la tour.
Les mêmes scènes se reproduisaient dans le reste de la France, et partout
saint Michel était vénéré comme le vainqueur de l’hérésie; il suffira d’en
citer un exemple. Avallon, perchée à la cime de son rocher de granit, était au
pouvoir de la Ligue. Dans la nuit du 28 au 29 septembre 1591, les
assiégeants y pénétrèrent après avoir pratiqué une large brèche dans le mur
d’enceinte. Ils croyaient la ville prise, quand le maire et le syndic
accoururent à la tête des habitants et les repoussèrent avec vigueur. Ce
triomphe, coïncidant avec la fête de saint Michel, fut attribué à la protection
du glorieux Archange, et, l’année suivante, les magistrats de la ville, de
concert avec les chanoines de Saint-Lazare, arrêtèrent que l’on ferait en
l’honneur du prince de la milice céleste une procession générale à laquelle
assisteraient les habitants d’Avallon «jusqu’aux escoliers, deux à deux,
honestement vestus, ayant chacun ung cierge ardent, accompagnés et
conduits par le principal du collège et ses subalternes;» et tout celà, disaient-
ils, parce que «l’Archange, monsieur saint Michel,» les avait protégés contre
les efforts de «Sathan,» et s’était montré sur la «braîche» de la place pour en
défendre l’entrée «aux hérétiques» et à leurs suppôts; de même que jadis, au
«temps de Jehanne la Pucelle,» il parut sur le pont d’Orléans et préserva la
ville contre les attaques des Anglais.
Toutes ces luttes ajoutèrent plus d’une page émouvante à l’histoire de
saint Michel. D’un autre côté, la perfidie et la cruauté des huguenots
n’arrêtèrent pas complètement les manifestations religieuses. Les rois de
France, il est vrai, ne visitaient plus le sanctuaire national depuis la mort de
Charles IX; mais ils favorisaient la dévotion du peuple envers le saint
Archange: par lettres patentes de 1585, 1588 et 1601, Henri III et Henri IV
confirmèrent les privilèges de la confrérie établie dans la capitale pour les
pèlerins du Mont-Saint-Michel. Cependant l’abbaye était en décadence.
François de Joyeuse avait réduit à treize le nombre des religieux et plusieurs
articles de la règle primitive étaient tombés en désuétude; mais l’Archange
veillait à l’honneur de son sanctuaire et l’on vit bientôt se lever des jours
plus calmes et plus prospères.
II.
SAINT MICHEL ET LE SIÈCLE DE LOUIS XIV.

e dix-septième siècle était à son aurore. La vérité avait triomphé de
l’erreur. Louis XIII, dit le Juste, siégeait sur le trône de France. Quelle
place le glorieux Archange devait-il occuper dans la pensée des
fidèles, au milieu de ce grand siècle, qui fut comme une halte entre les
guerres religieuses et les horribles scènes de la révolution? Saint Michel
resta sur le trône que la piété de nos pères lui avait élevé, immédiatement au-
dessous du Sauveur et de sa divine Mère; les sciences et les arts,
l’éloquence, la poésie, la peinture, l’architecture publièrent à l’envi sa
puissance et sa gloire; des paroisses érigèrent en son honneur de nouvelles
confréries; le titre de chevalier fut regardé comme la récompense de la
bravoure et du savoir; de nombreux pèlerins fréquentèrent les chemins
montois, et plusieurs d’entre eux furent témoins des merveilles que le ciel ne
cessait d’opérer dans la vieille basilique du mont Tombe. Toutefois, les
beaux jours du moyen âge ne devaient plus refleurir. Sous Louis XIII, saint
Michel perdit son titre de premier patron du royaume; peu à peu la
popularité de son nom diminua; la magistrature, l’armée, les écoles, les
corporations se choisirent des protecteurs particuliers; les protestants ne
crurent pas mieux faire pour se débarrasser d’un tel ennemi que de nier son
existence personnelle, et Bossuet, le plus grand génie des temps modernes,
dut prendre la défense du prince de la milice céleste.
Le principal sanctuaire de l’Archange inaugura cette ère nouvelle par une
réforme que l’affaiblissement de la discipline avait rendue nécessaire. En
1615, Louis XIII choisit pour remplacer François de Joyeuse un descendant
de la maison de Guise, Henri de Lorraine. A la demande du souverain
Pontife, l’administration de l’abbaye fut confiée au général de l’Oratoire de
France, Pierre de Bérulle, qui devait être honoré plus tard du titre de cardinal
(fig. 112). Aussitôt un prêtre de cette congrégation, appelé Jacques Gastaud,
se rendit au Mont-Saint-Michel, et travailla de concert avec le duc de Guise
à réparer les bâtiments qui tombaient en ruine, et à ramener les moines à la
stricte observance des règles de saint Benoît. Pour consolider à l’ouest de la
montagne les
Fig. 112.—Portrait du cardinal Pierre de Bérulle, fondateur de la congrégation de l’Oratoire. D’après
la gravure de B. Audran, conservée au collège des oratoriens à Juilly.
constructions de Robert de Torigni, il éleva le contre-fort marqué aux armes

de l’abbé. L’année suivante, il fit orner le chœur de la basilique et achever
les lambris de la nef.
La réforme des moines offrit de plus grandes difficultés. D’après les
historiens du temps, la princesse de Guise, mère du jeune Henri de Lorraine,
apprit avec peine que plusieurs pèlerins du Mont parlaient «en mauvaise
part» de l’abbé commendataire et des religieux; elle n’omit rien pour faire
accepter à ces derniers un prieur d’un autre monastère. Ils y consentirent, et
reçurent successivement dom Noël Georges et dom Henri du Pont. Ce
remède n’étant pas proportionné à l’étendue du mal, il fallut songer à une
réforme complète. Des tentatives furent faites pour introduire au Mont-Saint-
Michel des prêtres de l’Oratoire, ou des bénédictins anglais de Saint-Malo;
elles échouèrent devant l’opposition des religieux. Alors un des membres de
la congrégation de Saint-Maur, Anselme Rolle, alla secrètement étudier la
situation de
Fig. 113.—Sceau de l’abbaye du Mont-Saint-Michel. Dix-septième siècle. Archives nationales.
l’abbaye. Dom Martène rapporte, dans l’histoire manuscrite de son ordre,

que ce bon religieux passa la nuit dans l’église du mont Tombe et fut
favorisé d’une vision céleste: un personnage mystérieux lui apparut et lui dit:
«Votre voyage ne sera pas inutile, vous réussirez dans votre entreprise et
Dieu sera servi sur cette montagne par les bénédictins de Saint-Maur.» En
effet, après de longs pourparlers, douze religieux de cette congrégation
s’établirent au Mont-Saint-Michel, le 27 octobre 1622. Ainsi, grâce au duc
de Guise et à sa noble épouse, l’antique abbaye, fondée par Richard Iᵉʳ, en
966, voyait naître une ère nouvelle, 656 ans après l’arrivée des premiers
enfants de saint Benoît. La ferveur des anciens jours allait revivre, et des
années de prospérité s’annonçaient pour la cité de l’Archange. On attribua
une large part au chef de la milice céleste dans cette œuvre de rénovation;
aussi, quand la petite colonie arriva au Mont, conduite par l’évêque
d’Avranches, elle monta directement à l’église et entonna «un respond de
saint Michel,» immédiatement après le chant du Veni Creator. Le même jour
et au même moment, dit dom Huynes, le duc de Guise «deffit l’armée navale
des impies et rebelles Rochelois,» et sa victoire «bien marquée sur les
tablettes du Mont» fut attribuée à l’archange saint Michel, protecteur de la
France, qui voulut de la sorte témoigner le «grand contentement qu’il
recevoit de cette nouvelle réforme sur ce rocher esleu et choisy par luy pour
estre réclamé et invoqué de toutes les nations ennemyes des heretiques.»
A la mort de l’illustre gentilhomme, l’héritier de son nom, Henri de
Lorraine, renonça pour toujours à ses droits sur l’abbaye du Mont-Saint-
Michel,
Fig. 114.—Cachet d’Étienne de Hautefeuille, abbé commendataire 1689.
et en 1644, le souverain Pontife ratifia l’élection de Jacques de Souvré,

chevalier de Malte et commandeur de Valence. Il était, disent les
chroniqueurs, «homme de grande vertu et prudence,» il aima ses religieux et
soutint leurs intérêts avec énergie contre Jacques de Montgommery, seigneur
de Lorges, et Roger d’Aumont, évêque d’Avranches. En 1670, la crosse
passa aux mains d’Étienne Le Bailly de Hautefeuille, chevalier de Malte et
commandeur de Villedieu (fig. 114). Il sut gagner l’affection des religieux
par l’aménité de son caractère; mais sa prélature n’eut rien de remarquable.
Il mourut à Paris, le 4 mars 1703, à l’âge de soixante-dix-sept ans.
Parmi les prieurs qui gouvernèrent le Mont, pendant l’absence des
commendataires, un certain nombre, comme Charles de Malleville, Augustin
Moynet, brillèrent par l’éclat de leurs vertus; Placide de Sarcus, Bède de
Fiesque, Dominique Huillard, Pierre Terrien et Joseph Aubrée travaillèrent à
la restauration de l’abbaye; d’autres, à l’exemple de Michel Pirou et de
Maieul Hazon, rétablirent les hautes études et restituèrent au mont Tombe
une partie de son ancienne réputation. Il existait pour les religieux des
chaires de rhétorique, de philosophie et de théologie. Dom Hunault professa
la rhétorique avec succès; dom Pirou commença en 1633 un cours de
philosophie, et les RR. PP. Jérôme d’Harancourt et Philibert Tesson
enseignèrent la théologie à «quinze profès de la congrégation.» De 1635 à
1640, dom Huynes, natif du diocèse de Beauvais, écrivit dans son style naïf
l’Histoire générale du Mont-Saint-Michel. Elle fut annotée et complétée par
Louis de Camps et Étienne Jobart. En 1647, un autre bénédictin du même
monastère, Thomas le Roy, commença le livre des Curieuses recherches du
Mont-Saint-Michel depuis l’an 709 jusqu’au 24 février 1648. Le plus sérieux
de ces annalistes, dom Huynes, mérite l’éloge que lui décerne M. E. de
Robillard de Beaurepaire: il est «consciencieux jusqu’au scrupule, exact
jusqu’à la minutie et d’une absolue sincérité.» Comme Guillaume de Saint-
Pair, il a composé son ouvrage pour répondre à la juste curiosité des
pèlerins: «Si vous désirez en faire la lecture, leur dit-il dans sa préface, vous
pourez voir apertement quel est et a esté de tout temps ce Mont-Saint-
Michel, en quel estime les fidelles l’ont eu, ce qui s’y est faict et passé et
combien ce rocher est agréable aux anges, mais particulièrement à
l’Archange st Michel, lequel vous veille un jour présenter devant le Throsne
du Roy des roys pour jouir à jamais avec luy de la présence de Dieu.» A
chaque page, le pieux auteur nous donne des preuves de sa dévotion envers
les saints anges et spécialement envers le prince de la milice céleste; il leur
demande avant tout de guider sa plume et de ne pas permettre qu’il s’écarte
jamais de la vérité: «Soyez, je vous prie, o esprits célestes, conducteurs de
cette mienne entreprise et gardez tellement mon esprit et ma plume qu’en
tout ce que j’escriroy, je ne m’esloigne nullement de la vérité.»
Les constructions de cette époque n’ont plus la grandeur, ni la beauté des
édifices du moyen age. Il faut l’attribuer en grande partie à la décadence de
l’art au dix-septième et surtout au dix-huitième siècle. Dom Placide Sarcus
bâtit sur la tour Gabrielle un moulin dont il existe encore des traces; le
sanctuaire fut enrichi de vases et d’ornements précieux; Jacques de Souvré
donna pour la chapelle de l’Archange un tableau d’une grande valeur; de
concert avec le prieur dom Moynet, il fit exécuter des travaux importants
pour isoler l’abbaye de toute communication avec la place dont il avait été
nommé capitaine et gouverneur. Quelques moines s’occupèrent avec succès
de la culture des arts, et laissèrent des œuvres qui n’étaient pas sans mérite.
Si nous en croyons Louis de Camps, l’écusson du monastère portait toujours:
«d’argent chargé de coquilles saint Michel de sable sans nombre, au chef
d’azur à trois fleurs de lys d’or.» D’après un manuscrit fort curieux
Fig. 115.—Armoiries de l’abbaye au seizième et au dix-septième siècle.
sur les Monuments des abbayes de Bayeux et d’Avranches, les armoiries

définitivement arrêtées se lisaient ainsi: «de sable à dix coquilles, ou navets
d’argent posées 4, 3, 2, 1, au chef d’azur chargé de trois fleurs de lys d’or,
surmonté d’une mitre et d’une crosse d’or.» Des archéologues distingués
veulent, au contraire, que l’émail soit d’argent et les coquilles de sable (fig.
115).
Dans le cours du dix-septième siècle, plusieurs pèlerins visitèrent le
Mont-Saint-Michel. L’un des plus célèbres, Charles de Gonzague, donna
pour l’autel un tableau qui représentait la «cheute du démon.» L’an 1631, dit
dom Huynes, «Henri de Bourbon, prince de Condé, lors la première
personne de ce royaume de France après le roy, et Monsieur frère unique de
Sa Majesté» allèrent au Mont et y passèrent la nuit pour entendre la messe le
lendemain, avant leur départ. Le vénérable père Montfort visita aussi le
sanctuaire du mont Tombe et plaça ses grands travaux sous la protection de
l’Archange.
Dom Louis de Camps et dom Étienne Jobart nous fournissent des détails
curieux sur les pèlerinages de cette époque. En 1644, il arriva au Mont une
compagnie d’Argentan, composée de cent vingt hommes «avec quatre bons
tambours.» Deux ans plus tard, trente-cinq femmes de la ville de Beaugé, en
Anjou, exécutèrent à pied le voyage du mont Tombe. L’une d’elles marchait
en tête, portant un guidon d’une main et de l’autre un chapelet. «Un petit
garçon de 10 à 12 ans leur battoit la caisse.» Elles entrèrent dans l’église
deux à deux, se confessèrent, reçurent la sainte communion et accomplirent
leurs dévotions à saint Michel. Au sortir de la ville, elles rencontrèrent une
procession de cent vingt hommes de leur paroisse; ceux-ci les firent passer
entre leurs rangs et gravirent à leur tour la pente de la montagne. L’année
suivante, cinquante jeunes gens, «dont le capitaine, le lieutenant et le porte-
enseigne estoient de fort honnestes gentilshommes,» arrivèrent du diocèse de
Séez et se trouvèrent au Mont avec quarante pèlerins d’une paroisse du
Mans. Le lendemain une compagnie de cinquante-cinq hommes, aussi du
diocèse du Mans, firent leur entrée dans la ville avec bannière déployée et
«tambour battant.» Deux mois après, les villes de Bayeux et de Vire
envoyaient au Mont plus de deux cents pèlerins, dont plusieurs appartenaient
aux premières familles du pays. Au dire des annalistes, l’année 1663 vit se
renouveler les grandes manifestations du moyen âge. Dans une seule
semaine, les moines reçurent «deux compagnies dont la moindre estoit de six
cents personnes. En l’une il y avait plus de quatre cents chevaux.»
Monsieur de Montausier, gouverneur de Normandie, vint à la même
époque prier devant l’autel de l’Archange. Les religieux lui firent une
brillante réception, et l’invitèrent à s’asseoir à leur table. Deux ans plus tard,
le duc de Mazarin, lieutenant du roi pour la province de Bretagne, fut
accueilli avec les mêmes signes de distinction. La communauté, «revêtue en
froc,» l’attendait au bas du Saut-Gautier; le R. P. prieur, accompagné de
deux chantres en chappe et de deux acolytes en aube, présenta de l’eau
bénite au duc et lui fit «une harangue.» Avant de quitter ses hôtes, le pieux
gentilhomme se confessa et s’assit à la table sainte.
Les pèlerins devaient quitter leurs armes à l’entrée de la ville; les
chevaliers de Saint-Michel et les princes du sang avaient seuls le privilège de
franchir les portes du château l’épée au côté. Cet usage occasionna souvent
de fâcheuses collisions. Un jour, Henri de la Vieuville, commandeur de
Savigny, voulut traverser le poste des gardes sans se soumettre à la loi
commune; les bourgeois de la ville lui fermèrent le passage; aussitôt le jeune
cavalier dégaîna et dit avec colère: «On me laisse pénétrer ainsi dans le
Louvre;» puis, il donna sur un portier plusieurs coups de plat de sabre.
«Après quoi, dit une chronique, il se fit un grand tumulte à la porte, et peu
s’en fallut qu’on ne le canardât. Mais bien lui en prit que cela arriva de bon
matin et que les cervaulx de nos bourgeois n’estoient point encore
eschauffez du cyldre de Normandie.»
Alors comme au moyen âge, la puissante protection de l’Archange se
manifesta par des prodiges éclatants. Dans un fléau qui décima la ville de
Pontorson, la rue saint Michel fut seule épargnée. Une famille du diocèse de
Coutances reçut par l’entremise de l’Archange une grâce signalée. Au milieu
d’un incendie des enfants furent trouvés sains et saufs sous les débris d’une
maison; ils racontèrent qu’un ange au visage radieux était venu les secourir
et les avait arrachés à la mort. Tous ces faits merveilleux furent contrôlés
avec soin par les moines et relatés dans les annales de l’abbaye.
La dévotion envers le glorieux Archange n’était pas éteinte dans la
maison de France. Au commencement du dix-septième siècle, Mˡˡᵉ Marie de
Montpensier, comtesse de Mortain, fit bâtir sur le rocher qui domine cette
ville un oratoire dédié à saint Michel. Au milieu des désordres qui
accompagnèrent la minorité de Louis XIV, la reine mère, Anne d’Autriche,
fit vœu d’élever un autel en l’honneur de l’Archange et le pieux fondateur de
Saint-Sulpice, M. Olier, composa pour elle cette formule de consécration:
«Abîmée dans mon néant, et prosternée aux pieds de votre auguste et sacrée
majesté, honteuse dans la vue de mes péchés de paraître devant vous, ô mon
Dieu, je reconnais la juste vengeance de votre sainte colère irritée contre moi
et contre mon État; et je me présente toutefois devant vous au souvenir des
saintes paroles que vous dîtes autrefois à un prophète: J’aurai pitié de lui et
je lui pardonnerai, à cause que je le vois humilié en ma présence. En cette
confiance, ô mon Dieu, j’ose vous faire vœu d’ériger un autel à votre gloire,
sous le titre de saint Michel et de tous les Anges; et, sous leur intercession, y
faire célébrer solennellement, tous les premiers mardis des mois, le très saint
sacrifice de la messe, où je me trouverai, s’il plaît à votre divine bonté de
m’y souffrir, quand les affaires importantes du royaume me le pourront
permettre, afin d’obtenir la paix de l’Église et de l’État. Glorieux saint
Michel, prince de la milice du ciel, et général des armées de Dieu, je vous
reconnais tout-puissant par lui sur les royaumes et les États. Je me soumets à
vous avec toute ma cour, mon État et ma famille, afin de vivre sous votre
protection, et je me renouvelle, autant qu’il est en moi, dans la piété de tous
mes prédécesseurs, qui vous ont toujours regardé comme leur défenseur
particulier. Donc, par l’amour que vous avez pour cet État, assujettissez-le
tout à Dieu et à ceux qui le représentent.»
Bientôt la paix succéda aux horreurs de la guerre civile et le règne
glorieux de Louis XIV fit oublier les mesquines rivalités de la Fronde. Le
jeune roi reçut le collier de Saint-Michel en 1643 et le porta soixante-douze
ans. Le 12 janvier 1665, il entreprit la réforme de l’Ordre. Dans ce but, il
réduisit à cent le nombre des chevaliers, et ordonna de les choisir parmi les
hommes de naissance et de mérite; de plus, il joignit treize articles aux
statuts primitifs. Le sceau de l’ordre était perdu. Le marquis de Torcy fit
exécuter plusieurs dessins, et les proposa au monarque; «Sa Majesté choisit
celuy qui avoit esté fait d’après le fameux tableau de Raphaël (fig. 116).»
Louis XIV voulut aussi favoriser les pèlerinages du Mont-Saint-Michel, et,
par ses lettres patentes du 15 janvier 1669, il confirma les privilèges de la
confrérie dont le siège était à Paris, et lui donna l’autorisation de nommer
tous les ans, à la manière accoutumée, deux maîtres et administrateurs, qui
devaient avoir fait le voyage du Mont-Saint-Michel. A cette époque nos rois
et les princes du sang étaient encore jaloux de «rendre le pain bénit à cette
confrérie.» Les pèlerins, de leur côté, avaient conservé l’habitude de faire
prier pour les confrères décédés dans le cours de l’année; à cette intention
une grand’messe était célébrée dans la chapelle du palais le dimanche qui
suivait la fête de saint Michel, et une messe basse était dite, le lendemain,
ainsi que les seconds dimanches de chaque mois.
Fig. 116.—Sceau et contre-sceau de la chevalerie de Saint-Michel, exécutés sous Louis XIV.
Au point de vue stratégique, l’abbaye-forteresse eut son importance sous

ce règne, comme sous les précédents. En 1661, Louis XIV envoya au Mont
trente soldats dont dix étaient pour le fort de Tombelaine; mais comme cette
garnison imposait à la ville des charges trop onéreuses, l’abbé de Souvré
réduisit à cinq le nombre des soldats; c’est pourquoi, dit dom Louis de
Camps, les religieux lui souhaitèrent «toute prospérité en ce monde et la
gloire en la vie éternelle.» Cependant, comme la guerre devenait de plus en
plus imminente avec les Anglais, le sieur de la Chastière, qui espérait, selon
l’expression d’Étienne Jobart, «monter sur la roue de la Fortune,» et rendre
sa personne «plus considérable,» fit venir au Mont-Saint-Michel une
compagnie de piétons. Ils s’installèrent dans la ville et le château, le 10
janvier 1666. Mais ce capitaine se rendit odieux par ses vexations, au point
que les moines invoquèrent solennellement contre lui l’assistance «du
glorieux Archange saint Michel.» Il mourut peu de temps après, et, le 13
juillet 1667, l’abbé commendataire, Jacques de Souvré, obtint le titre de
gouverneur. Cette nouvelle fut accueillie avec reconnaissance par les
habitants du Mont, «lesquels, dit dom Jobart, en feirent des feux de joye
avec les salvades et descharges de l’artillerie tant de la ville que du chasteau,
ce qui fut encore réitéré avec joye et allégresse le 25 du mesme mois, jour de
saint Jacques, apostre, patron de M. nostre abbé et gouverneur.» Maieul
Hazon, prieur claustral, fut chargé de la garde du mont Tombe en qualité de
lieutenant; il divisa toute la bourgeoisie en six escouades de 9 à 10 hommes,
et les chargea de veiller tour à tour aux portes de la ville, et de fournir trois
hommes pour garder le château avec les portiers de l’abbaye.
Tel était le Mont-Saint-Michel sous le règne de Louis XIV. A cette
époque fameuse dans l’histoire, la cité de l’Archange apparut encore
«orgueilleuse et fière» selon la belle expression de Mᵐᵉ de Sévigné. La
vieille basilique fut, comme au moyen âge, le centre et le foyer de la
dévotion des peuples envers le prince de la milice céleste. Plusieurs pèlerins,
après avoir visité le sanctuaire du mont Tombe, élevèrent des chapelles ou
des autels en l’honneur du saint Archange; d’autres établirent des confréries
ou firent de pieuses fondations. La paroisse du Sap, dans le diocèse de Séez,
nous en offre un exemple remarquable. En 1688, plusieurs bourgeois de cette
localité, entreprirent un voyage au sanctuaire «du bienheureux Archange
saint Michel par esprit de dévotion,» afin d’obtenir sa puissante protection
«pendant et après le cours de leur vie.» De retour au Sap, ils fondèrent «à
l’honneur de Dieu, sous les auspices et intercession» du glorieux Archange,
«une messe solennelle à diacre, sous-diacre et chappiers.» Elle devait être
célébrée tous les ans et à perpétuité le jour de la fête de saint Michel, «le 16
octobre.» Cette messe était précédée d’une procession où l’on chantait les
litanies de tous les saints anges; elle se
Fig 117.—Médaille (face et revers) des membres de la confrérie de Saint-Michel à Joseph-Bourg.
Fig. 118.—Bourdon des processions solennelles (face et revers) de la confrérie électorale de Saint-
Michel, pour les agonisants, érigée premièrement à Joseph-Bourg, en Bavière. 1693.
terminait par le chant du Libera et la récitation du Pater pour les fondateurs

défunts, leurs parents et leurs amis. La solennité était annoncée par quatorze
coups de cloche, suivis du carillon. Pour cette fondation annuelle, les
bourgeois du Sap versèrent entre les mains de Jean Lesage, trésorier, la
somme de cinquante livres. Les membres de la confrérie devaient choisir
tous les ans l’un d’entre eux pour «roy,» à charge de présenter à la messe du
16 octobre un pain à bénir, avec deux cierges blancs. Le roi veillait aussi à
l’exécution des règlements et poursuivait les membres qui voulaient s’y
soustraire.
Les autres confréries n’étaient pas moins prospères. Un ouvrage
intéressant, l’Explication de l’institution des règles et des usages de la
confrérie électorale de Saint-Michel archange, nous fournit des détails
curieux sur l’association érigée en 1693 pour les agonisants à Joseph-Bourg
en Bavière. Le but de l’œuvre était d’imiter la douceur et l’humilité de Jésus-
Christ en se dévouant au service des agonisants et des défunts. La devise
était le cri de guerre de saint Michel: Quis ut Deus! L’esprit dont les
confrères devaient donner l’exemple, était exprimé par quatre lettres: F. P. P.
F.: force, piété, persévérance, fidélité. Un archichapelain, un prédicateur et
deux autres prêtres administraient la confrérie. Chaque membre devait porter
la médaille qu’il recevait le jour de son entrée dans l’association (fig. 117).
Le costume variait selon les circonstances: il y avait l’habit solennel, l’habit
ordinaire, l’habit de pénitence, l’habit de funérailles, l’habit de pèlerinage
(fig. 114 à 129). Chacun de ces costumes était accompagné d’une croix
particulière comme marque distinctive: la croix double pour l’habit solennel,
la croix simple pour l’habit ordinaire, la croix recroisée pour l’habit de
pénitence, la croix orbée pour l’habit de funérailles, la croix en sautoir pour
l’habit de pèlerinage. Tous les confrères portaient le bourdon à la main (fig.
118). Cette pieuse association s’établit à Freisengen, à Bonne, à Cologne, à
Liège et en plusieurs autres localités; elle était très florissante au
commencement du dix-huitième siècle, et, en 1706, elle recruta trois cent
quatre-vingt-quinze membres dans la seule cité de Lille. Elle comptait alors
cent mille affiliés.
Cependant, comme nous l’avons déjà dit, le culte de saint Michel trouva
des contradicteurs à cette époque. Des catholiques, par exemple à Malines,
avancèrent hardiment que le chef des anges en sa qualité de pur esprit ne
pouvait être représenté sous des formes sensibles, et
Fig. 119.—Pièces d’un habit de confrère.

Fig. 120.—L’habit solennel.
Fig. 121.—L’habit ordinaire.
Fig. 122.—L’habit de pénitence.
qu’il n’était pas permis de porter son image en procession; d’autres, parmi
les protestants, osèrent nier l’existence personnelle de saint Michel, malgré
l’enseignement unanime de l’Écriture sainte, de la tradition et de la
théologie. Bossuet dans son langage énergique vengea le nom et la gloire du
saint Archange: «Il ne faut point hésiter, dit-il, à reconnaître saint Michel
pour défenseur de l’Église, comme il l’étoit de l’ancien peuple, après le
témoignage de saint Jean... conforme à celui de Daniel... Les protestants qui
par une grossière imagination

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Landscapes of Monstrosity 1st Edition

László Munteán Hans Christian Post

Chess Explained The c3 Sicilian 1st Edition Sam Collins

Starting Out The c3 Sicilian 1st Edition John Emms

The Paper Issue 83 1st Edition Origamiusa

The American Revolution 1774 83 2nd Edition Daniel

English Grammar Exercises with answers Part 4 Your

Patriot vs Loyalist American Revolution 1775 83 Combat

British Light Infantryman vs Patriot Rifleman American

Secrecy Public Relations and the British Nuclear Debate

Ana Maria Borlescu

Inter-Disciplinary Press is a part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net

László Munteán and Hans Christian Post

The Inter-Disciplinary Press is part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net – a global network

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

Inter-Disciplinary Press, Priory House, 149B Wroslyn Road, Freeland,

Introduction: Landscapes of Monstrosity vii

Part I Spatial and Corporeal Monstrosities

Psychogeography and Ground Zero 3

Monstrosity by Monstrous Means: Cambodian Memorial Sites 13

Monsters Take to the Streets! 23

Part II Mythical Monsters

The Dark Side of the Sun: 63

A Plague upon Our Virtual Land 77

Gods and Monsters:

Hans Christian Post and László Munteán

Spatial and Corporeal Monstrosities

Alexander John Bridger

Key Words: Psychogeography, situationists, psychology, qualitative research,

2. Methods and Strategies

Dérives involve playful-constructive behaviour and awareness of

3. Psychogeographical Walking at Ground Zero

Bridger, Alexander John. ‘Psychogeography and the Study of Social Environments:

Burnett, Judith, Erika Cudworth, and Maria Tamboukou. ‘Women on Dérive:

Debord, Guy. ‘Theory of the Dérive’. Situationist International. Viewed 26

‘Definitions’. Situationist International. Bureau of Public Secrets. Viewed 16

Ellis, Carolyn and Arthur Bochner. ‘Autoethnography, Personal Narrative,

Grup de Lesbianes Feministes. ‘Exploring New Ways of Insubmission in Social

Hollway, Wendy. Subjectivity and Method in Psychology: Gender, Meaning and

Khatib, Abdelhafid. ‘Attempt at a Psychogeographical Description of Les Halles’.

Pinder, David. ‘Old Paris Is No More: Geographies of Spectacle and Anti-

Precarias a la Deriva. ‘Housewives, Maids, Cleaning Ladies and Caregivers in

Sadler, Simon. The Situationist City. London: MIT Press, 1998.

Alexander John Bridger is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of

Hans Christian Post

Key Words: Cambodian genocide, Khmer Rouge, genocide memory, memory

2. The Cambodian Genocide

3. The Cambodian Memorial Sites

4. Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

5. Viewing the Mug Shots

6. The Silences at Tuol Sleng

7. Resetting the Focus

8. Setbacks and Resistance at Choeung Ek Killing Fields

Hughes, Rachel. ‘Dutiful Tourism: Encountering the Cambodian Genocide’. Asia

‘Mapping the Killing Fields’. DC-CAM. Viewed 26 April 2015.

Sharp, Bruce. ‘Counting Hell’. Mekong. Viewed 26 April 2015.

Wills, Emma. Theatricality, Dark Tourism and Ethical Spectatorship: Absent

Key Words: Gentrification, resistance, street art, graffiti, monstrous, situationist

1. Street-Art: Transgression and Complicity

Image 1: Street-art around fire escape on Smeed Road warehouse. Photograph

Image 2: Street-art on roof of Smeed Road warehouse. Photograph

Image 3: Street-art on junction of Smeed Road and Stour Road. Photograph

Image 4: Street-art outside Stour Space. Photograph