Dealing with the relevance of the concept and metaphor of appetite for understanding politics, writing, race, nation, and gender in the medieval and early modern periods, this collection of essays traces the development of concepts of monstrous consumption. Three areas of consumption are discussed: the role of appetite in the construction of the self and its "others, " the use of metaphor of appetite to represent sexual and epistemological activities, and the sociopolitical dimension of appetite. Topics discussed include trade and colonialism, vampires, the shella-na-gig figure, and witchcraft.