Why the Starbucks mermaid has two tails: fairies, werewolves, mandrakes and mermaids 3302-SWWMS-OG

On the façades of medieval churches you can see beings, partly human, partly animal, like the fairy Melusine. Preserved art and literary monuments show half-woman, half-bird or half-fish. Isidore of Seville describes two varieties of mandrake: the female, whose leaves are similar to lettuce, and bears fruits similar to plums, and the male, which has leaves similar to beets. The history of culture shows that many monsters are born through interbreeding. These are people with animal heads or animals with human heads or torsos, such as mermaids, sphinxes, centaurs or Melusine – a woman with a snake or fish tail that she hides, fulfilling her marital, maternal and social role. Monsters and magical beings and artifacts have been and are ubiquitous in culture. They played a key role centuries ago, and they are still present today. They can be found, among others, in Homer’s Odyssey, but also in contemporary cultural texts, such as Margit Sandermo’s Saga of the Ice People, Jeanne Kathleen Rowling’s Harry Potter or texts by Andrzej Sapkowski. Observing the presence of various kinds of monsters in culture, one can try to answer a few questions. What does the presence of monsters and wonderful creatures, even if only in the human head, day about us? What role do they play in our lives? Do we need miraculous creatures today? How did the strange monsters spread so widely and survive for millennia? What do unusual creatures say about the relationship between nature and culture, about knowledge about the world, about the relationship between humanities and natural science? What is the role of knowledge about unusual creatures in the rapidly since the late 1990s developing trend of environmental/ecological humanities, which is being built in the post-humanist perspective of critique of anthropocentrism, eurocentrism and geocentrism, emphasizing the need to create knowledge arising from the combination of humanities and social science with natural science and indigenous knowledge?

Planned thematic circles:
1. Human-animal and human-plant relationships over the centuries. From the first observations of nature to posthumanism
2. Monster classifications
3. Anatomy of monsters
4. Sources of knowledge about monsters, mythical tradition, Christian tradition
5. Between knowledge and superstition; superstitions, beliefs and myths
6. Magical properties and artifacts
7. The duality of nature and its reflection in literature and art
8. Body, gender and erotic visions – between knowledge and fantasy
9. Anthropomorphism and attempts by humans to impose their shape and lifestyle on other species
10. More-than-human worlds
11. Images of various hybrids in literature, art, music and film over the centuries – changeability and durability
12. Hybrids in contemporary culture and sources of tradition
13. Hybrids from heraldry to modern advertising

lecture with multimedia presentation + discussion