Masks

The mask is the classic disguise, but as an alter ego it reveals as much as it hides. This book asks why masks are so often creepy, even outside horror movies, and whether a mask can change expression while someone wears it. It also asks how much of a person's self can live inside a mask, why anyone would make a plaster cast of a dead person's face, and who that masked man really was. Masks supply the materials for make-believe, from the theater to Halloween, from masquerades to Scooby-Doo. They can carry magic or ritual power and can preserve and pass on memory. They also work as makeover tools for appearance and identity, from spa treatments to drag to superheroes. What links these uses is the mask as a physical metaphor, a mirror of both the self and society. Even our words "person" and "persona" come from the Latin word for mask. T.H.M. Gellar-Goad traces one of humanity's oldest cultural objects, from prehistoric remains to ancient Roman funeral processions, Mardi Gras, and masked doppelgangers on stage and screen. Looking at masks across time and around the globe, the book sheds new light on the totemic power masks have taken on, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.