SIMBOLIČKA KONSTRUKCIJA MONSTRUOZNOG – PRIČA O ELIZABETH BATHORY

This article analyzes several kinds of monsters in western popular culture today: werewolves, vampires, morlaks, the blood-countess and other creatures of the underworld. By utilizing the notion of the monstrous, it seeks to return to the most fundamental misconception of ethnocentrism: the prevailing nodes of western superiority in which tropes seem to satisfy curiosities and fantasies of citizens who should know better but in fact they do not. The monstrous became staples in western popular cultural production and not only there if we take into account the extremely fashionable Japanese and Chinese vampire andwerewolf fantasy genre as well. In the history of East European monstrosities, the story of Countess Elizabeth Bathory has a prominent place. Proclaimed to be the most prolific murderess of mankind, she is accused of torturing young virgins, tearing the flesh from their living bodies with her teeth and bathing in their blood in her quest for eternal youth. The rise and popularity of the Blood Countess (Blutgräfin), one of the most famous of all historical vampires, is described in detail. In the concluding section, examples are provided how biology also uses vampirism and the monstrous in taxonomy and classification.Rad analizira nekoliko vrsta čudovišta u današnjoj zapadnjačkoj popularnoj kulturi: vukodlake, vampire, morlake, krvavu groficu i ostala stvorenja podzemnoga svijeta. Rabeći pojam monstruoznog rad se bavi temeljnim zabludama etnocentrizma – prevladavajućim nakupinama zapadnjačke superiornosti u kojima alegorije zadovoljavaju znatiželju i maštu građanstva koje je navodno iznad toga, no zapravo nije. Monstruozno postaje uporabni predmet u zapadnjačkoj popularnoj kulturnoj produkciji, a ako uzmemo u obzir i krajnje pomodan japanski i kineski žanr o vampirima i vukodlacima, i ne samo na Zapadu. U povijesti istočnoeuropske monstruoznosti priča o Elizabeth Bathory zauzima istaknuto mjesto. Proglašena je najplodonosnijim ženskim ubojicom ljudskoga roda, optužena da je mučila mlade djevice, zubima derala meso s njihovih živih tijela i kupala se u njihovoj krvi u potrazi za vječnom mladošću. Podrobno su opisani uspon i popularnost Krvave Grofice (Blutgräfin), jedne od najpoznatijih povijesnih vampirica. U završnom je odjeljku oprimjereno kako biologija rabi vampirizam i monstruozno u taksonomiji i klasifikaciji