La popularidad de los monstruos en pliegos de cordel del siglo XVIII en España: dos ejemplos de metamorfosis

The stories about monsters were one of the most popular themes in Spanish chapbooks. Whether real or imaginary, the beings described in these popular texts are composed of a similar structure, keeping with the genre in which they are depicted. Stories of metamorphosis, for example, follow a cause/consequence structure in keeping with the exemplum; meanwhile stories about beings that appear in the cities are usually told as stories of adventure, action, and tragedy. Their actions, and death are described in detail and were probably popular with the public of each time. In this article, I collect some examples of news stories about monsters that were published in the 18th century, highlighting, among these stories, two exempla of metamorphosis that were very successful and were therefore reprinted numerous times.