Traps, Trauma and the Locked Door: Bluebeard in the 21st Century

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

Traps, Trauma and the Locked Door: Bluebeard in the 21st Century with Rachel Friars

Please support our speaker with a donation if you are able. We recommend between £1 and 10This presentation will provide an analysis of Bluebeard retellings after 2000. I will argue that, since the turn of the century, adaptations of the French folktale have focused less on polarized archetypes of either female victims or triumphant heroines and rather on flawed, uncanny, ruthless, and traumatized survivors who are no longer always white nor always female. Twenty-first-century Bluebeard stories feature female characters whose trauma leads them to survive by whatever means necessary. They are no longer exclusively victims of male violence or paragons of virtue, but rather something Gothically transgressive and in-between, allowing them to trick, claw, and fight their way to survival. Furthermore, these tales sometimes alter the gender and race of their protagonist, evoking considerations of representation and remediation in contemporary Gothic narratives. Crucially, such stories also often recount the aftermath of such an encounter with male violence, and this presentation will bring trauma theories—such as the act of bearing witness—to bear on such modern retellings. I will also argue that these adaptations have a place in considerations of the rising popularity of male serial killer narratives in both fiction and nonfiction. This presentation will incorporate texts such as “Bones” (2000) by Francesca Lia Block, “Blue-Bearded Lover” (2010) by Joyce Carol Oates, “Bluebeard in Ireland” (2010) by John Updike, Strands of Bronze and Gold (2013) by Jane Nickerson, “The Glass Bottle Trick” (2018) by Nalo Hopkinson, “Bluebeard” (2021) by Soman Chainani, and How to be Eaten (2022) by Maria Adelmann. Rachel M. Friars is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of English Language and Literature at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Her current work centers on neo-Victorianism and nineteenth-century lesbian literature and history, with secondary research interests in life writing, historical fiction, true crime, and the Gothic. Her work on lesbian historical fiction has been published with Palgrave Macmillan and in The Journal of Neo-Victorian Studies. Rachel’s work is forthcoming from Lexington Books, Crime Studies Journal, Queer Studies in Media and Popular Culture, and The Journal of Lesbian Studies.

Our {communityGuidelinesLink} describe the sort of content we prohibit on Eventbrite. If you suspect an event may be in violation, you can report it to us so we can investigate.

To report other categories of prohibited or illegal content, submit {link}

Traps, Trauma and the Locked Door: Bluebeard in the 21st Century

More events from Romancing the Gothic

Discover more events from Romancing the Gothic, from Hobbies to other experiences you might love.

Still looking for the right event?

Explore all online events to browse and filter by date, category, and more.

Traps, Trauma and the Locked Door: Bluebeard in the 21st Century

More events from Romancing the Gothic

Discover more events from Romancing the Gothic, from Hobbies to other experiences you might love.

More Hobbies events

Browse more Hobbies events with different dates, prices, and formats to find your next great experience.

Still looking for the right event?

Explore all online events to browse and filter by date, category, and more.