The differences between pre-modern and modern monsters are numerous, and in some ways can be understood best through the series of transformations that occur in modernity. Charles Taylor has described this as a transition between enchantment and disenchantment, "the shift from symbol to mechanism." Modernity's encounter with monsters profoundly changed the way these creatures function, through "Gothic mobility." In pre-modernity, monsters—whether located inside or outside a territory's borders—were often restricted to the spaces that exist beyond the borders of a community or the "natural world." On medieval maps, the Plinian monstrous races are located in a region that lies south of Africa. Jewish monsters were often shown occupying areas near Christian communities. In one image, a Jew Dragon is shown in an underground dwelling representing hell, just below the earth. In contrast, Christian encounters with Saracens often took place in Muslim territories, evil places where the sun was absent and every rock and stone was black.

DEFINE: Defines 'Gothic mobility' and Taylor's enchantment/disenchantment shift as frameworks for understanding monster transformation.

Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imag…, loc. 55