Despite being an expert on contemporary literature as well as 20th-century Russian literary criticism, Waseda University professor Toshio Takahashi also teaches a course on the symbolism of monsters, or — more specifically — the ways in which monsters are cognitive figures that reflect the real world.
"The course starts with a lecture that defines what monsters are," Takahashi said.
"There are two principal elements," he continued, explaining that monsters in early Western works of literature were first and foremost creatures created by humans that often revolted against their masters. Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" or H.G. Wells' "The Island of Dr. Moreau" stand out as obvious examples of such themes at work.