Rethinking normal

EVER wondered what the word “norm” means? Well, Monash University Malaysia (MUM) communications lecturer Dr Andrew Ng has clear ideas on that score. He believes that cultural and ideological influences shape public perceptions on what is considered “normal” in society, so much so that those who do not conform to society's accepted structures and systems are often labelled “monsters”. 

This concept of monstrosity forms the basis of Ng's literary study and is contained in his recently published academic monograph Dimensions of Monstrosity in Contemporary Narrative: Theory, Psychoanalysis, Postmodernism.