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The paper explores how monstrous figures symbolize warnings against overconfidence in self-identity.

June 3, 2026Open Access

Signs of the Self

Key Points

The paper explores how monstrous figures symbolize warnings against overconfidence in self-identity.
Examined the roles of the doppelganger and hermaphrodite as monsters.
Analyzed their representations in Dostoyevsky's The Double, O'Connor's Temple of the Holy Ghost, and The Crying Game.
Discussed the historical context of these monster figures stemming from Pseudo-Dionysius.
Monstrous figures serve to confront and shatter overly confident self-images.
The analysis reveals the deep-rooted tradition of using monsters as symbolic warnings.
The portrayal of these monsters is consistent across the literary texts examined.

Abstract

The function of the monster as a sign (monstrare, to show) that warns against intellectual surquedry is an intellectual tradition reaching down from the third-century theologian Pseudo-Dionysius. Overly confident images of the self are shattered, often violently, by the monstrous negations that confront them. A discussion of two classic monsters, the doppelganger and the hermaphrodite, attempts to illustrate this by examining their appearance in three literary texts: Dostoyevsky's The Double, Flannery O'Connor's Temple of the Holy Ghost, and the Neil Jordan film The Crying Game.

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