Intorno al mostro “fuori” e “dentro” del sé. L’ ‘iperbolia’ del mostruoso dal XVII secolo, il simbolico e l’educazione dello sguardo

The essay approaches the problem of the ‘monsters’ (or Freaks) in a multidisciplinary way and with a pedagogical intent. The monstrous figure tells about the ‘defect of nature’. The relationship with them is a way to analize the relationship with the “different” people. In particular the text starts to analyze the seventeenth century teratology, criticized by nineteenth-century positivism. Since 1600 we can see a hyperbole of vision that lose the symbolic value of the ‘excess’ vision of the monstrous.