ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a number of monstrous bodies to demonstrate how the taboo on physical abnormality comes under pressure in the nineteenth century. It discusses physical deformity and analyses those individuals whose disfigured or imperfect bodies separate them from their fellow human beings because of their noticeable deviation from accepted norms of appearance. The chapter investigates how literal monsters and their metaphorical echoes can be articulated amidst these conflicting urges. It shows how the taboo on bodily deformity can be transgressed by language. Victor Hugo's descriptions of his monsters call traditional notions of the grotesque and the sublime into question and thus undermine the reader's own value-system. The chapter briefs how language is a tool with which to destabilize our understanding of bodily taboos, to render redundant out-moded notions of 'normality', 'beauty', and 'perfection', and to call at last for a different way of conceiving of the monstrous body.
