An Introduction to Queered Frankenstein with Lucy ALlan

Romancing the Gothic is an independent online education project run by Dr Sam Hirst which offers a range of classes, courses and groups

Romancing the Gothic

Today's talk explores queered Frankenstein adaptations in literature and film

Our series of talks is funded exclusively by donations. The talks are free to access but if you can support the project and do not support it on ko-fi or patreon, please choose the 'choose your price' option.If you'd like to support more regularly, you can use the links belowPatreon - <a href="https://www.patreon.com/romancingthegothic" title="https://www.patreon.com/romancingthegothic" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.patreon.com/romancingthegothic</a>Ko-fi - <a href="https://ko-fi.com/samhirst" title="https://ko-fi.com/samhirst" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://ko-fi.com/samhirst</a> Being a tale of agonising otherness and societal rejection, it is unsurprising that Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has proven itself one of the most fertile sources in modern literature for queer readings, responses and reworkings.This talk will explore both the history and theory of Frankenstein as a queer text. I will investigate how gay filmmaker James Whale reimagined the othered Monster as a creature who ‘externalizes and renders visible the nightmarish loneliness and alienation that the closet can breed.​ I will examine how, following Whale, countless adaptations have extrapolated this otherness to gradually make the creature’s queerness more explicit – from Lynd Ward’s sexually charged woodcut illustrations in the late 1930s to the riotously queer Rocky Horror Picture Show, all the way to postmodern reworkings like Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein. This talk will also consider the Monster as a trans analogue, with his monstrous ‘excess of gender,’​ and will unpack the eroticism of the creator-creature relationship, considering the bypassing of heterosexual union in order to create life, and whether Victor Frankenstein is motivated to create an ‘ideal male lover’​ for himself.

An Introduction to Queered Frankenstein with Lucy ALlan

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An Introduction to Queered Frankenstein with Lucy ALlan

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