Cannibalism is a common characteristic of medieval monsters, and it persists into the modern period, for instance, in cinematic adaptations of Bram Stoker's tale of Dracula, a Jewish and Ottoman monster who literally sucks the life out of his victims. Fictional cannibal narratives are featured in numerous adventure and horror fictions in the modern period. These are all stories designed to cast the Other as so uncivilized, so removed from the human community, that he or she enjoys the taste of human flesh. In the early modern period, these fantasies are an integral part of the European quest for territory, even in spaces that were exoticized, like Tahiti. Cannibal fiction is a genre that "has gained its entire meaning from within the discourse of European colonialism." However, the foundations of this genre are much older, situated in martyrologies and other medieval narratives.

XREF: Connects to Edward Said's Orientalism and broader postcolonial critiques of how European narratives justify territorial expansion.

Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imag…, loc. 174