Material Information
- Title:
- THE MONSTER WITHIN AND WITHOUT: IDENTITY ASSIGNMENT AND CONSTRUCTION IN SLAVE NARRATIVES AND HORROR FICTION
- Physical Description:
- Book
- Language:
- English
- Creator:
- Lucas, Chelsey
- Publisher:
- New College of Florida
- Place of Publication:
- Sarasota, Fla.
- Publication Date:
- 2014
Thesis/Dissertation Information
- Degree:
- Bachelor's ( B.A.)
- Degree Grantor:
- New College of Florida
- Degree Divisions:
- Humanities
- Area of Concentration:
- English
Subjects
- Genre:
- bibliography ( marcgt )
theses ( marcgt )
government publication (state, provincial, territorial, dependent) ( marcgt )
born-digital ( sobekcm )
Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
Notes
- Abstract:
- This thesis presents an analysis of the relation between the human and the
monster as it is used in nineteenth-century American slave narratives (Frederick
Douglass, Harriet Jacobs) and British and American horror fiction (Mary Shelley’s
Frankenstein and Glen Duncan’s Last Werewolf trilogy).
I begin with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), asserting that Victor
Frankenstein attempts to abject his own monstrousness through the creation of his
monster. The creature tries to discover his nature in relation to human persons, and
acquires language and literacy. Through this, he becomes a recognizable person despite
his physical deformity, at least for the reader. He remains ostracized and rejected by his
father/creator, however, demonstrating a distinct split between monster and human, and
also the transcendence of these categories when Victor becomes monstrous and the
creature becomes recognizably human-like. In the next chapter, I use Frederick
Douglass’s Narrative (1845) and Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
(1861) to demonstrate how both write their own stories to claim their own humanity and readerly sympathy. Under slavery, black-bodied individuals were perceived and
represented as less-than-human. In slave narratives that detail slavery’s atrocities,
however, the slavemaster is perceived and depicted as monstrous. Finally, Glen Duncan’s
The Last Werewolf trilogy (2011; 2012; 2014) shows the monster and the human existing
in a single body. Protagonists Jake and Talulla depict a dual identity as human and
“wulf,” while their babies, born werewolves, represent a hybridization between the two
formerly distinct categories.
This thesis challenges the notion that human and monster are distinct categories
with monster theory, deconstruction, and gender theory, and questions where the line is
drawn if it ought to be drawn at all.
- Statement of Responsibility:
- by Chelsey Lucas
- Thesis:
- Thesis (B.A.) -- New College of Florida, 2014
- General Note:
- RESTRICTED TO NCF STUDENTS, STAFF, FACULTY, AND ON-CAMPUS USE
- Bibliography:
- Includes bibliographical references.
- General Note:
- This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida Libraries, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.
- General Note:
- Faculty Sponsor: Dimino, Andrea; Wallace, Miriam
Record Information
- Source Institution:
- New College of Florida
- Holding Location:
- New College of Florida
- Rights Management:
- Applicable rights reserved.
- Classification:
- S.T. 2014 L8
- System ID:
- AA00024765:00001
|
