Vesper No. 8 | Vesper | Spring-Summer 2023
Malvina
Borgherini
About a Vespertilian
Man. Or about Leigong and Batman, between Chinese Mythology and Comic
Strips of the American Golden Age
Keywords
Bat, hybrid, animal,
Lucifer, demons-tuon
The
Vespertilio (a term derived from Latin and already in use in the ancient
literary language with the generic meaning of bat), a kind of flying mouse that
lives mainly at night, has become, in the eyes of the common imagination, the
animal that more than any other symbolises the world of darkness and our
deepest fears.
The article
considers examples of human-animal hybridisation spanning cultures and eras as
far apart as the ancient Mediterranean, Taoist China and the Christian West in
the Middle Ages, and Wasp America in the first decades of the 20th century,
highlighting their affinities and distances.
contacts
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