Presenter(s): Corinne Brubaker
Oral Session 3 O
The “us versus them” binary is the primary rift that divides and defines human culture. The historical catalyst of both destruction and union, this binary is also a prominent literary motif. In the case of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the humanity, or possibly the monstrosity, of Frankenstein’s creature is the source of “us versus them” confusion and debate. A being constructed of human parts, yet neither gestated nor born as a true human being, the creature is a cause of terror for all characters in the story, including himself. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s third thesis from “Monster Culture (Seven Theses)” describes monsters as those who “[refuse] to participate in the classificatory ‘order of things’” thereby distinguishing them as defiant of the “us versus them” binary (Cohen 3). Julia Kristeva’s abject theory and Sigmund Freud’s concept of the uncanny are both examples of category disruption at play in Frankenstein, resulting in moments of uncertainty that support the creature’s inability to be defined. Using the work of Freud and Kristeva, I seek to demonstrate the ways in which Frankenstein’s monster upholds Cohen’s third thesis, thereby proving that his monstrosity is defined by his very inability to fit into the “us versus them” binary.