Within and Without: Human-Monster Boundary in Attack on Titan

In: Edgelands: A Collection of Monstrous Geographies
Author:
Ya-han Chang
Search for other papers by Ya-han Chang in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
Type:
Chapter
Pages:
1–8
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/9781848884816_002

Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

€35.00
Add to Cart
Redeem Access Token

When it comes to monstrosity and geography, isolated geographical locations usually act as the center of monstrosity. However, in the Japanese manga series Attack on Titan, written and illustrated by manga artist Isayama Hajime, it is humanity that is isolated from the outside world. The serialization of the series began in September 2009 and has been collected into 13 volumes as of April 2014. Attack on Titan is set in a fictional world where human cities are surrounded by three enormous concentric walls. Human beings live within the walls to protect themselves from the Titans, gigantic humanoid creatures that swallow humans for unknown reasons. At the beginning of the story, the outermost wall is destroyed by an outsized Titan. This event leads to the invasion of the Titans and the destruction of human communities, families, and the social system within the walls. The attacks of the Titans reduce the realm of human world. Humans must repeatedly redefine self and otherness to survive with limited resources. The disasters gradually uncover the evil of human beings. The investigations and adventures of the protagonist and his friends reveal that humans can transform themselves into Titans. At the same time, it turns out that the walls protecting humans are actually formed by petrified Titans. I argue that these findings blur the boundary between the human world within and the chaotic world without. The blurred definition of the safe world challenges the concept of self and otherness, normal and aberrant. The geographical uncertainty reflects the obscurity of the line between humanity and monstrosity in the human society, and questions the necessity of this distinction.

  • Collapse
  • Expand
E-Book ISBN:
9781848884816
Publisher:
Brill
Print Publication Date:
01 Jan 2016
Restricted Access
Preliminary Material
Restricted Access
Stadtschaft and Urban Wildscapes
Restricted Access
Christchurch as Lisbon: The Legacy of the Seismic Sublime
Restricted Access
The Triangle: A Narrative Portrait of Place-Gathered Monstrousness
Restricted Access
The Devil Comes to Visit
Restricted Access
The Australian Gothic as a New Mode in Australian Landscape Photography
Restricted Access
The Persian and Muslim Conquest of Byzantine Palestina: Monstrous Invasion or Peaceful Occupation?
Restricted Access
A Monster Painting Monsters: Norval Morrisseau and His Painted Images
Restricted Access
Satan’s Architecture of Fear: Landscape, Body and Emotion in Paradise Lost
Restricted Access
The Dystopian Geography
Restricted Access
Citypunk: Transgeographies in Science Fiction Comics