Monstrous Children and Childish Monsters

<p> Perhaps because of the wisdom received from our Romantic forbears about the purity of the child depictions of children as monsters have held a tremendous fascination for film audiences for decades. Numerous social factors have influenced the popularity and longevity of the monster-child trope but its appeal is also rooted in the dual concepts of the <I>child-like</I> (innocent angelic) and the <I>childish</I> (selfish mischievous). This collection of fresh essays discusses the representation of monstrous children in popular cinema since the 1950s with a focus on the relationship between monstrosity and childness a term whose implications the contributors explore.</p>