I AM THE MONSTER: SELF AND THE MONSTROUS FEMININE IN CONTEMPORARY YOUNG ...

210 Pages·2014·1.05 MB·English

I AM THE MONSTER:
SELF AND THE MONSTROUS FEMININE IN CONTEMPORARY YOUNG
ADULT LITERATURE

A Dissertation
by
ELIZABETH JOHNSON TALAFUSE

Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of
Texas A&M University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Chair of Committee, Claudia Nelson
Committee Members, Anne Morey
Sally Robinson
Claire Katz
Head of Department, Nancy Warren

August 2014

Major Subject: English

Copyright 2014 Elizabeth Johnson Talafuse
ABSTRACT

My dissertation surveys British, American, Australian, and New Zealand young
adult texts of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries featuring female
protagonists who are fantastic monsters. Addressing such texts as Margaret Mahy’s The
Changeover, Justine Larbalestier’s Liar, and Diana Wynne Jones’s The Time of the
Ghost, I examine the metaphorical use of monstrosity in literature to address the
“problem” of female adolescence, specifically in relation to female physical
development, sexuality, and agency. With chapters on witches, werewolves, and ghosts,
I investigate the ways in which the characters’ understanding of their monstrosity
intersects with their emerging gender identity. I interrogate what these representations
of monstrous young women reveal about social and cultural perspectives on femininity
and the developing female body. As supernatural entities, monsters extend the
possibilities of human experience, demonstrating physical and psychic powers that
disturb the established order. Framing the female protagonist as a monster, however,
indicates a fear of her potential to disturb and destroy. Thus, I argue that while the
proliferation of monstrous female protagonists encourages female agency by making the
monstrous powerful, familiar, and enticing, the trend simultaneously demonstrates the
ways in which these seemingly subversive characters are contained within moral and
social frameworks of femininity.
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DEDICATION

For my parents and for Steven.

iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude to my committee chair, Dr. Claudia Nelson,
for her invaluable guidance and unwavering patience and support. I would also like to
thank my committee members, Dr. Anne Morey, Dr. Sally Robinson, Dr. Claire Katz,
for their advice and encouragement throughout the course of this project.
My thanks also go to the Texas A&M University Department of English, the
Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research, Cushing Memorial Library, and
the Texas A&M University Women’s and Gender Studies Program for their support of
this research.
Finally, I am grateful to my mother and father for their encouragement and to my
husband, Steven, for his steadfast love and support.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... ii
DEDICATION ................................................................................................................. iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................... v

LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... vii

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1

Monstrosity, Abjection, and Femininity ................................................................ 8
Outline of Chapters .............................................................................................. 18
Notes ..................................................................................................................... 24

CHAPTER II MAGICAL BODIES: THE TEEN WITCH, MATERNITY, AND
SEXUALITY ................................................................................................................... 25

Witches Want Their Say: MacDonald, Baum, and the Suffragists ...................... 30
Radical Witches: King and the Destructive Witch ............................................... 46
Maternal Witches: Mahy and the Protective Witch ............................................. 58
Conclusion: Responsible Witchcraft .................................................................... 72
Notes ..................................................................................................................... 77

CHAPTER III ANIMAL BODIES: THE HOWLING HEROINE, HYBRIDITY,
AND DISTURBING FEMININITY ................................................................................ 82

Boobs Bornstein Bites Back: The Menstrual Monster ........................................ 89
Taming Vivian’s Sexual Aggression: The Wild Wolf ....................................... 103
Micah’s Mendacity: The Unstable Female ........................................................ 116
Conclusion: Anger, Exploration, and Subversion .............................................. 127
Notes ................................................................................................................... 130

CHAPTER IV NOBODIES: THE GHOST GIRL, CORPOREALITY, AND
RECOGNITION ............................................................................................................. 142

Discovering Identity without a Body: Jones’s Nameless Ghost ........................ 148
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Page

To Get a Body: Possession and Feeling in A Certain Slant of Light ................. 162
To Matter: Social Recognition as Life in ghostgirl ............................................ 170
Conclusion: Control and Cross-Gender Communication ................................... 176
Notes ................................................................................................................... 180

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION ....................................................................................... 185

Notes ................................................................................................................... 190

WORKS CITED ............................................................................................................. 191

vi
LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE Page
1 Illustration by Laura Lakey accompanying “Boobs” in Asimov’s ................... 136
2 First edition U.S. cover of Liar ........................................................................ 140

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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

Contemporary young adult literature abounds with monsters. From the
phenomenal success of the Harry Potter series to the frenzied fan following of the
Twilight franchise, monsters not only appeal to teen readers but also expose and, in
many cases, subvert aspects of adolescence that society characterizes as disturbing and
horrific. As supernatural entities, monsters extend the possibilities of human experience,
demonstrating physical and psychic powers that disrupt the established order. For the
female monster, in particular, her monstrosity generally is associated with her status as a
girl, her gender, sexuality, and pubertal body. This dissertation explores depictions of
monstrous femininity1 in late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century young adult (YA)
fantasy and horror literature to analyze their commentary on female subjectivity as well
as identity and bodily development. In particular, I examine narratives involving
monstrous protagonists. Framing the female protagonist as a monster indicates a fear of
her potential to disturb and destroy. As witches, werewolves, and ghosts, these heroines,
rather than rejecting what would be categorized as “monstrous” about themselves, in
many cases explore their monstrosity and come to embrace it. Such narratives of
monstrosity function as metaphors for the teen girl’s negotiation of her changing body
along with her search for identity and autonomy. At an age when social acceptance
becomes a challenge and a priority, the teen’s status as outcast or freak speaks to issues
of self-esteem and identity. In a similar yet metaphorical vein, the monstrous aspects of
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the protagonists included in this study isolate them from society at large. Embodying
what the typical teen outcast may feel, these heroines are different; they are deviants
who are socially and physically outside the bounds of normalcy.
The challenges they experience are not solely related to their femininity: age is
another factor that leads to their feelings of being outcasts, as are race and class in a
number of instances. Fantastical monstrosity in these texts represents not only the
abjection that the characters experience but also the difficult and “monstrous” period of
adolescence. No longer children and not yet adults, adolescents lack the cuteness and
innocence of childhood and the freedom and experience of adulthood. Revolting against
or undercutting authority, particularly adult authority, is one of the ways in which these
monstrous figures assert their power. Part of their journey involves coming to terms
with their differences—whether these be in regard to gender, age, race, or class—and
accepting them as sources of their individuality and potential strength. In some cases,
the heroine’s monstrosity is an element key to successfully resolving the conflicts in her
community; however, in all of the works explored in depth in this project, the heroine’s
negotiation of her monstrosity ultimately affects the resolution of her individual conflict.
Overall, I argue that, while the proliferation of monstrous female protagonists
encourages female agency by making the monstrous powerful, familiar, and enticing, the
trend simultaneously reveals anxieties about female power and demonstrates the ways in
which these subversive characters are contained within moral and social standards of
appropriate femininity.
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Historically, the monstrous feminine represents aspects of female power that are
especially threatening to patriarchy, particularly the power of reproduction. In the
context of teen culture, though, sexuality is not the only aspect of female adolescent
identity development to which the monstrous feminine is relevant; like the reproductive
capacity itself, it is tied to issues of self-esteem, bodily awareness, social relations, and
more. Because of the multitudinous ways that it can be projected on the female body,
the monstrous feminine is a common trope in speculative fiction, including fantasy,
science fiction, and horror, the last a genre that has exploded within the teen market in
the last three decades and that is the primary focus of this study. The success of the YA
fantasy and horror genres, most notably Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series (2005-2010),
speaks to the teen reader’s connection with the monstrous characters, their strength as
well as their vulnerability and uniqueness. Taking into consideration the evolution of
the female fantasy tradition, and its influence on teen fiction in particular, the monstrous
female depicted in a fantastic world offers fruitful opportunities to speculate on the
possibilities of female power and the fears and anxiety that surround it. In recent years
the monstrous feminine has become more prominent in female adolescent coming of age
fantasies. The monstrous elements, as they are related to “feminine” attributes,
underscore issues related to female sexuality, gender, agency, power, and humanity. The
ways in which the female protagonists negotiate the monstrous feminine in each of their
respective frameworks not only affect the development of their own identity but also
reveal the social constructs that inform that development.
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