Teratological Becoming(s)

This essay explores the intricate relationship between Blackness and the monster/monstrosity/monstrous by focusing on how Blackness is frequently portrayed as negatively “monstrous” within cultural narratives and how these depictions are subverted through various forms of performance. It investigates the numerous ways monsters emerge and are depicted as a defining category and lens through which Blackness and Black religion are framed. I contend that it is imperative to consider how Blackness disrupts, transcends, and expands prevailing perceptions of the “monstrous.” The concept of the “monstrous” is an undertheorized yet generative ideological construction that recognizes how the historical-socio-political origins of the monster contribute to its own categorization. To think more carefully about this, I examine Candyman (2021) to unearth how the monstrous—over against traditional discussions around the “monster” and “monstrosity”—provides the space to renegotiate, reexamine, and reconstruct traditional understandings around Black subjectivities and identities. This approach opens numerous interpretive avenues for examining Blackness and Black religion, reshaping and redefining the category of religious meaning and Black representation while acknowledging the multidimensional realities embedded in the “real lived experiences” of Black people, as portrayed in various forms of monstrous media.